I dunno who this is or where they are or what the EFF is but I am now going to go and educate myself. Fucken a.

I dunno why they keep bringing it back when they can just send it on down the river like us but who are we to try and understand the psychology of the downstreamers.

The most likely and least funny explanation. shucks.

The language isn’t a problem. Loads of people in China, especially in and around universities, are fluent in English. Plus OP would get to learn Mandarin in arguably the best environment for it.

(arguably because sometimes you just wanna practice your mandarin but everyone else wants to use their english. many such cases. my experience and so many people I’ve talked to about this lol)

I’ve been to China multiple times and I find the Arctic Circle very appealing as a life experience / novelty / adventure but I would still choose two years in China over one in the arctic.

It would be (presumably) a good career move, an excellent cultural experience, more time away, more exposure to mandarin = quicker and easier to learn, you’d get to see what a real modern country is like and possibly form connections or even friendships with people who might be in a position to work on projects with real positive impact.

Over the span of two years you’d have a few days here and there that you’d need to occupy and China has lots of distinct unique places and cultures, and of course the variety of climates / biomes.

Also what you said about China taking climate change seriously is representative of I think the biggest appeal for me, which would be the mental relief I’d get living somewhere that takes things seriously, is serious about solving problems and that has a proper healthy respect for science and reason. At a policy level anyway-

A friend of mine taught there for a bit over a decade and is a lot less prone to romanticizing everything. In day to day life China isn’t an especially rational and efficient place, not tryna sound naive and utopian. But on the whole they are pushing consistently in the right direction on policy and implementation, and for me that would be very subconsciously comforting thing.

Like how libs get to feel when brunch isn’t cancelled. I want that. I want communist brunch and I want it for you too.

But the Arctic Circle option would be fucking cool too, what an awesome decision to have to make.

Does anyone know which thread caused the issue in particular with the user bumping the thread and repeatedly causing crashes?

Probably wasn’t me.

We’re the tip of the spear.

A compassionate position, stated clearly and without compromise. What a breath of fresh air.

It was really really odd and unsettling to me, to see the media and pop culture take the ball from the activist front and run with it so far and so fast. With so little regard for nuance and so much time for scandal.

can’t really explain this in a way that will make sense to people who are vulnerable now and facing active or imminent repression, but I expected shit to get a lot worse a lot quicker for our people in reaction to how manufactured our acceptance felt at the time.

I underestimated how authentically people adopt the new thing into their world view when society tells them the wind has changed. I sometimes wonder if it was the last big cultural influence campaign executed via the old broadcast media. Not to discount the impact of activist work but shit changed SO fast I’m still a bit disoriented.

Did it feel organic to you? like, I never have much reason to talk about this anymore and you can’t really trust cis people with a conversation about it even if they had been positioned to witness the process of change. Just wondering if what I’m describing resonates at all?

Feels entirely possible that I read too much into everything then and now, with a big side of conspiracy brain along for the ride. I’m not really thinking “conspiracy” just… it was weird right?

I’d like to see the rising tide try.

Damn straight. Shoulda heard the lecture I gave the dog lol.

I’m always warning him that he’s a lil defenseless ignorant baby compared to the mighty magpies and other creatures he seems to think he’s better than.

I haven’t seen it in a while but one of this guy’s close relatives was living in my back yard for a lot of the summer. I love big skinks like you wouldn’t believe.

It’s not cool but my dog caught it or a very similarly mature one transiting the yard, but before I realised what was happening it defended itself! I did not expect it and tbh never seen anything quite like it.

I was so activated (we really try to make sure the dog doesn’t harm the native critters) that it seemed to happen in slow motion as I was moving, after the dog tossed it, the lizard leapt AT the dog and bit him on the nose hard enough to hang there for a sec. That made the dog reconsider and back up, and the lizard got Big As I Can in a defensive posture, hissing, and I swear, started to walk the dog down.

By then the dog was finally listening to me and broke off and the lizard got away. But to be clear, this lizard was not big and my dog is not tiny. I already loved and respected the big skink but that just… sealed the deal for me.

Say whaat this is fucking cooool. holy shit.

This is worse than the time someone filed a FOIA request on us.

WELL IT DOES NOW, GOOD WORK CHIEF. WELL DONE.

PLEASE REPORT FOR REEDUCATION AT THE NEAREST WALL.

Awesome. That’s so cool. I’m guessing this won’t be your last live performance then?

How was it? Fun? :o

Caitlyn Jenner was and is such a fucking poison pill in the process of trans rights recognition and awareness.

Such pure distilled American bullshit.

You probably couldn’t engineer a worse way for our experiences and struggles to have been brought to public consciousness even if you tried.

Why was it her? Why was it, “look! look at this lovely person! why would not want to do everything in your power to ease the burdens on this POOR UNFORTUNATE MILLIONAIRE KILLER NARCISSIST?”

And for like the better part of a decade it was somehow actually effective? The mind boggles.

But what a dangerous foundation to have established. Look now, as this horribly unsympathetic figure is again the face in the media “pushing back” and for what? A special dispensation for being one of the good ones.

Yea, I’m thinkin its Marg Bar America all day long.

Why is this image so evocative?

I know there are obvious silly joke answers to this question but fuck that.

Is it “just” the texture of the medium? I don’t think so, but its part of it maybe.

The (artifice of a) casual pose sorta reminds me of early photography/Daguerreotype posed portraits intended to present a facsimile of a candid scene, even if everyone had to stand there for 2 minutes for the exposure.

The photographer worked in the darkroom to isolate the subject from the background^[1] so she exists in an unfamiliar abstract space. But in the space, symbols of traditional patriarchal expectations of women.

Obviously the stove, with the cooking pot on it. Her partial nudity. She isn’t performing or presenting herself to the viewer, there is the sense that she is either unaware of our observation or actively disinterested in it.

This makes for a potent expression/exploration/??? of the male gaze. Like really powerful imo.

But what is up with the gun? Am I to simply see her pointing a gun into the cooking pot, from which presumably she nourishes the men who gaze… and think… what? That she rejects the role the patriarchy expects of her? bullshit.

Its something else and its interesting.

But I really don’t understand why these ROM devs are not more clear about this requirement. They are fully advertised as “all you need is a pixel phone” which is false. I think a lot of the user base is wealthy enough to go to the google store and buy a new phone in cash. It is the only explanation. The forums have frequent threads of people who are having problems installing due to this.

Yeah for real. I was just trying to confirm whether my belief (apparently, not knowledge) that carrier locking and irreversible e-fuse bootloader locking a phone like the Pixel would be a violation of consumer law here. We did have some major changes ages ago, but its been years since I’ve personally had to worry much and its still ambiguous grey area stuff with irreversible e-fuse protections altering / downgrading trust attestation and widevine support etc being common.

I’m off on this tangent to say “oh, wow I see what you mean” because I’m done with this search, the results are an endless repetition of “pixels are always unlockable.”

I didn’t end up editing my post cuz I realised your warnings start far enough up the chain to be visible. I appreciate this conversation though cuz I am guilty of believing and promoting the “pixels are worth the cost but you don’t have to pay google for one” line without hesitation in the past.