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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • I switched nearly two decades ago after I used a freeware network monitor on Windows and realized that it was making dozens of silent TCP connections online. Some were to Microsoft, while others were to unknown third parties. Just imagine your personal machine doing this!

    Linux is actually easy to use these days. Installation is often easier than windows and hardware just works most of the time. Despite that, people have a habit of exaggerating the difficulties in using Linux or BSD. They very often feel like excuses to avoid checking it out.



  • The ritualistic crucifixion in the Philippines is nothing like the real deal. While painful, grievous and fatal injuries are avoided in the ritual. The nail and the corresponding body part are not loaded. This is tolerable as long as the volunteer is not tired.

    The real one was designed to cause a prolonged, but assured death. The Jewish-Roman historian Josephus talks about 3 of his acquaintances who were crucified. On learning this, the Roman emperor had them released and treated. Yet, two of them didn’t make it, while the third was just lucky.

    The real crucifixion was designed to cause a range of prolonged and fatal injuries. That included asphyxiation, plural effusion and collapsed lungs, shock, embolism, heart failure, hypothermia, and/or infection. Besides these, there are other agonizing effects like neuralgia, nerve palsy, cyclical loading of wounds (where the nails are driven), hypercapnia (panic inducing increase in blood CO2 levels), joint dislocation, painful cramps, fracture (when crurifragium is applied) and discomfort caused by rubbing their scourged back against the rough wood.

    Stories of people surviving crucifixion even when taken down are pretty rare. Even modern instances of crucifixion are pretty brutal when it’s not part of a ritual.








  • I have heard this tape. While it’s distressing, it’s something worth hearing. Not because it’s pleasant to listen to people die. But because it’s worth remembering their pain so that those mistakes are never repeated again.

    Remember that the engineers, technicians and other support staff of Apollo 1 didn’t have the option of turning off the audio either (I listened to it to partially feel what they felt). They worked feverishly to save their colleagues who were burning to death only a few inches away from them. And to finally reach them to find out that it was all in vain.

    This would have been a horrifyingly painful experience for NASA. And it did have an impact. NASA changed in an instant. No effort was spared in keeping the future astronauts safe. So much so that a deeply crippled Apollo 13 still made it back safely. And no lives were ever again lost on the Apollo missions. That’s the power of a personal connection to a tragedy. I watch a lot of accident investigation documentaries, including rail, aviation and space. Nothing drives the lessons deep like the depiction of human tragedy.

    Just imagine. If only the aircraft manufacturers could see the final moments of the passengers that die in their low quality aircrafts. Perhaps they would try hard to avoid such incidents rather than chase profits at any cost.

    RIP: Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, Ed White. The bravehearts of Apollo 1.


  • I was hoping to not engage in this discussion. But I have never seen such a hypocritical take on current affairs.

    You have talked about antisemitism and genocide here. Antisemitism is real. But what Israeli supporters are doing here is to use that to shut down genuine criticisms of criminal activities. Your past history of persecution doesn’t give you a free pass to do the same onto others. You can’t claim racism to oppose the criticisms you receive due to your activities. Stop hiding behind strawman arguments.

    And what do you mean by ‘cheapening the genocide’? That it’s only genocide if Jews die at the hands of the Nazis or other antisemites? Or that the Palestinians are too cheap to be considered as genocided when they are killed en masse? Are you even honest enough to talk about the Palestinian casualties in terms of cause and numbers and still claim that it isn’t a genocide? Genocide has a well defined meaning. You don’t have a monopoly on it to twist it to your whims.

    It doesn’t take too much common sense to see that the Israeli response to Hamas’ initial wrong doings is greatly out of proportion. Hamas incursion was just an excuse to justify the ethnic cleansing in the region. But all I see is this transgression being billed as anti-hamas when even children are being slaughtered. How convenient is it to club all who you don’t like into a single terrorist group!

    what war crimes have israeli been convicted of and what does that have to do with biden?

    The same war crimes that other countries want to convict Israel of, but that’s blocked by Israel and the USA. The one that ICC at Hague is trying to, but is blocked by Bibi and biden pair.

    ‘I’m not convicted of anything’ isn’t a proper or even honest response when you control if you will be prosecuted at all. What you have applied is the justice of a tyrant - not that of a fair judicial system.