iNow

Really? According to the Department of State, they've an entire fleet of these balloons performing similar operations in 40 different countries across five continents right now. This was hardly a one-off.

You misspelled minutes.

FWIW, I knew that you meant humans are apes, not black people are apes. On another note, can we please stop the meta discussions in joke threads? It really ruins the flow.

Lots of good info above. Would only add one other hard earned lesson: It’s generally better to spend slightly more upfront and do the job right the first time… make the install ready for what will surely be a higher demand on the system in the future… than to cheap out and need to repeat the work again later a second or third time for twice or triple the price. Buy once, cry once. Good luck! (also a hard wired connection nearly always beats a wireless one, the strength of which falls off with distance and weather conditions etc)

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Communications Intel (COMINT), and Electronic Intel (ELINT) have really gone both wide and deep these last several years given the ubiquity of social information being shared online. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signals_intelligence_operational_platforms_by_nation

KJU = Kim Jong Un and NK = North Korea They’re surely still collecting intel even now around which memes are being most liked and shared. It’s a never ending back and forth when it comes to this type of spycraft.

Whatever group of high placed minions he’s appointed as his lieutenants to cyberattack his perceived enemies. The ones who have his blessing to actually touch a computer and who are sanctioned to pull teams together to logon and use the internet while executing social wedge PsyOps campaigns. “Cartel” allowed me to say the same thing more efficiently in one word.

This discussion has led me to recall the following: //“Nazis use satire, humour or “lolz” as partial immunity for their hate, allowing them tolerance from those who would (or should) otherwise repudiate it. As the guide states: “Packing our message inside of … humour can be viewed as a delivery method. Something like adding cherry flavour to children’s medicine.” <...> When white people wield the conch of humour, people of colour are supposed to just endure the racism that comes out and laugh at the humour encasing it. This is the model neo-Nazis view as fertile ground for spreading hate. <...> Here’s a hint: if your view aligns with a neo-Nazi writing guide, it’s probably wrong. It’s too easy not to care about words, jokes and actions when you’re not the one affected by it. While I’m glad most white people seem to passionately oppose Nazis, that’s not a particularly high moral bar to pass. If you believe that Nazi ideology should be opposed, you can’t just ignore the way this ideology is spread. And normalisation through humour is a key part of that.”\\ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/19/neo-nazis-hatred-comedy-racist-daily-stormer Decades, even! /rimshot For years, political jokes were being shared in the Official Jokes section thread. It was decided that not all science minded members here wanted political barbs and jokes in their otherwise apolitical jokes thread (and it also looked bad to newly minted site members) so my post made over there in that thread got split into its new home over here in the Politics section along with several that followed (I.e. I didn’t technically create this thread even though I’m displayed as its OP). See also: Humans are complex. Thank you mod team for splitting this, btw. ✌🏼

Especially considering just how much of that content was intentionally inserted there by China themselves (and Russia, Iran, likely the Saudis, and potentially even KJUs NK cartel)

So what you're saying is all those right-wing loonies mad at Biden for not using a BB gun from the ground to take down the evil China balloon are ignorant loonies we can basically ignore? Good to know! Always appreciate you sharing your advanced aviation knowledge, btw. Learn something new and interesting every time you do. +1

Yeah, but those only work when you put your hat of foil back on, right?

Brains are not meaningfully aligned along some simplistic kindergarten-level male-female dichotomy. Our application of those labels is a bit arbitrary and for the most part are IMO a historical artifact. We do it because, well… because that’s how we’ve always done it… never mind that there’s a better way. Here’s one among many recommending a more meaningful multi-dimensional mosaic. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763420306540

In much the same way that astronomy used to follow a heliocentric model. Natural philosophers refused to abandon it for decades until they had no other choice.

I wish more people would do this. It’d at least make threads like these less common and less confrontational. ✌🏼 Not necessarily, but let’s keep conversation about that there. The entire concept of binary gender is fraught, as are humans trying to force square peg kids to fit into binary round holes due to socially cultural norms.

That’s not an accurate summary of my views, no. Nuance is lost here it seems

Definitely!

I never joke in threads this productive.

Hyperbolic much?

Citation needed. Isn’t the answer here obvious?

Not according to the paint section at the local hardware store. Parents and parents-to-be all standing there buying the “right” color to paint their still unborn child’s nursery… making sure it’s pink or blue or a similar gender-based hue.

Did you happen to notice how all of his little pajamas and onesies and jumpers (or whatever you Scottish blokes call em… maybe a romper?)… did you happen to notice they were ALL blue and white and gray. Not pink, though? Sadly it wasn’t just the parents who were in on it. Apparently all of their friends showed up to the baby shower with blue and gray and white onesies and bibs and socks and hats. Not a damned one was pink though, and the baby wasn’t even born yet. Heck… Not even the mom had seen her baby boy yet… what with him still gestating inside her belly and all… yet already the social gender cues were being reinforced everywhere and across all corners. Not yet even breathing air outside instead of breathing fallopian fluids, but already gifted trucks and blocks and planes instead of dolls and kitchenware. Obviously these roles and characteristics we see today are all genetic in origin. /sarcasm (and only quoted you here as a jumping off point, this is not a reply to you directly)

Yeah, but that was like 14 entire pages ago. Statute of limitations likely applies to evaded counterpoints.

I'm not certain whether I agree with their arguments, but the data to your core question are well summarized here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6509633/

As am I. Please avoid subtly attempting to dismiss me as some Pollyanna. I’m more than capable of supporting my position. There are many realities involved here, and one of them is withering while the other is not. Except you’re not being consistent in your logic. Parents push children into “you are male!!” and “you are female!!” directions every. Single. Day. You’re NOT arguing against that. You’re happy defending the status quo where parents “push” genders on their children which you happen to find acceptable. You accept that. You just don’t like when the conversation steers into same sex. Anyway, nobody here is arguing that parents ought to PUSH their children anywhere, only that they stay the hell out of the way and show some acceptance when children do decide for themselves that they feel different from the norm.

Answer the question asked instead of evading with a new question of your own