In the short term, we should probably focus on fixing our problems on earth. Some space research should still be funded, but not as a major priority. Once we finally have our shit together, we can start exploring the stars.

Kia EV3. It’s generally nice and I don’t want a different one. But I’d prefer not to drive a car if that were practical for me right now.

Probably Middle Earth/The Lord of the Rings. (1937-2026)

I really liked how the 48fps version of the Hobbit looked (even though the movies themselves were mediocre).

For me, they’re just a nice to have. I don’t actively chase them or anything, but it’s sometimes neat to see when I did a thing that only 1% of players managed to do. I personally don’t care that they’re public. If I did, I imagine I’d have a private Steam profile anyway, so the achievements would be a moot point. I don’t see a meaningful difference between publishing my achievements and my other game activity like play times.

Not regularly or often, but yes. It’s actually legal from the age of 14 here (under parental supervision and only lower-alcohol stuff like beer). So I’d have a bit here or there for special occasions like New Year’s Eve. From the age of 16 you’re allowed to drink unsupervised. At that point some of my classmates already got drunk regularly. I never liked alcohol (or rather its effects) that much though and to this day I’ve never been drunk. These days I might drink something like a glass of wine every few weeks or so.

There’s a Pokemon fan forum that I originally joined around 2004 I believe. They’ve had a relaunch since then, so my current account is “only” from 2009 though. I’m still ocassionally active on there, along with like 5 other users.

Well, it comes from Spain. Even if all your American ancestors came from Norway (which is unlikely), people in Europe have been intermixing for millennia. “Pure blooded” people don’t exist.

That’s 2 different companies (Nintendo vs The Pokemon Company). But also yeah, obviously they have much more to gain when it’s about $200B.

This. Also older people falling for that kind of stuff was pretty much expected, but that came with the hope that those ideas will soon die out along with them. So fascism finding significant support among younger people (even if it’s not even close to the majority) kind of killed that hope.

Do you recall where you saw that? I can’t find that statement. Would be cool if true though. Wasn’t possible for Index Controllers.

If they work like the Index controllers, no, they won’t connect without Steam VR running and the HMD connected. But maybe they’re different.

I don’t think you can do a whole lot with the Frame controllers without the Frame though.

For German, I guess Pennsylvania Dutch would come closest? At least in the sense that it’s a variety of German spoken in North America. It’s barely understandable for modern-day Germans.

Maybe so, but getting neither kind of terrible tattoo is always an option, isn’t it?

Imagine wearing some AI slop on your skin for the rest of your life…

Yesterday, on my bike, feeling the warm sun on my skin again after a long winter.

Moderators do an important unpaid task as a service to the community. They don’t need a philosophy degree to do stuff like removing spam, doxxing or rude comments.

Sometimes there will be moderators who do end up going on a powertrip and ban everyone they don’t like. In those cases it’s probably best to just move on to different communities. If you feel a bit petty and want to complain, you can post it to /c/yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com

A hereditary monarchy is still not an oligarchy 🤷

Sure, not saying it is. I was arguing against Cowbee’s claims of North Korea being a democratic system controlled by the working class. North Korea is not a classic oligarchic system however, so I’d agree with your reply to OP.

But anyway, you’re only talking about the head of state. They have an entire system running there

I don’t think that any kind of democratic system is possible under a head of state with that amount of worship and cult of personality around a single person. The structures for a democratic system underneath may exist, but when it’s not possible to act out of line or speak out against the great leader, they might as well not. All the evidence I’ve seen suggests that it’s not. Both from North Korean media itself, which I’ve watched quite a bit of, and from the mouth of North Koreans who managed to get out.

You’re no doubt well-informed on the theoretical systems of those countries but you can’t just look at the theory and be like “that’s exactly how it works in real life”. It’s a fact that leadership in the DPRK has passed on from father to son for 3 generations now - any country that does that is a hereditary monarchy, not a people’s republic. Kim Jong Un was never part of the working class. He was raised in palaces and sent to an elite college in Switzerland. You don’t even need to trust any Western media on this - just watch a few minutes of North Korean TV and you’ll hear how the leaders are basically treated as gods. Many people who threatened or spoke out against their rule, including those in the “royal” family like Kim Jong Nam, have been murdered or disappeared.