I guess it's also worth considering whether getting vaporized in one shot both A) allows them any time at all in which to analyze, determine an adaptation, and transmit...and B) allows for any meaningful adaptation to be even conceived.

I'm sort of seeing this as the "Dodge this." scene in the Matrix...and honestly, as long as the DS never leaves a survivor, and shoots first, it wins any and every 1v1.

On the other hand, if there is even one extra cube present, I would think its powers of observation would at least let it start working out an adaptation. Also, eventually, the DS, being run by imperials, is going to decide to play with a cube. Try to learn about it, capture it, etc. Once that happens, the odds shift dramatically against it.

Stationary relative to the station itself.

When it is in orbit around a planet, there's little to no net speed differential.

Can the cubes share information with each other at distance?

If not, I feel like the Death Star surprises the shit out of every cube it encounters.

Just have one officially killed.

Then signal to the rest that you'd like them to review this latest decision while you're deciding on your nominee to fill the vacancy.

And literally hours after McConnell says it's too close to an election to have a confirmation, have him killed too.

Then ask his replacement (Cornyn? Graham? Hawley?) to pretty please hold a confirmation vote before your special ops team has a chance to get a few hours of sleep and a hot meal and they're ready to roll again.

I think you'd be cutting out a significant portion of the workforce by excluding those in early adulthood.

I'm guessing their position is very much "oh they still need to work and pay taxes...and they shouldn't expect any more support than they currently have in order to do so...but they need to figure out how to manage it all without driving, and they should be disenfranchised as well".

There's more than one specific topic covered in sex ed.

We teach math to children, but nobody is suggesting that you need to get your toddler into differential equations.

Also, for many areas, a vehicle is a necessity of adult life.

If you're not letting kids drive at 16, then for that *almost-*decade until they're 25 you'd better provide free transportation as well.

Since that's not about to happen, leave it as it is.

While I personally agree with most of what you said, I disagree with your assertion as to the reaction you'll get from peers.

We've made admitting mistakes worse than the mistake itself these days, and it's slowly unraveling accountability.

I associate this with boomers more than kids, but that's subjective since an old former friend I know always used to do it.

They also used "seen" instead of "saw", as in, "I seen dark clouds so I closed the windows." which is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

You're getting downvoted because Lemmy, but that's more or less how I read the ruling as well. They ruled very specifically in a way that let them punt on all the other questions these trials have created.

I'd hoped for better, but not realistically.

More great points, I agree.

Also...it might just be me, but I find that I subconsciously have more respect for a person, both as a person and as a reliable source of information, if they present things with qualification, as you suggest. To me, it's a sign of humility and an indication of an appreciation for the complexity of any given subject if someone is knowledgeable enough to both field questions and demonstrate proficiency while also being careful to qualify and delineate between what's fact, what's generally accepted, what's their understanding, and what's their opinion or guess.

I listened to a podcast last year about TOP GUN instructors and the grueling process they go through to become subject matter experts in their specific subject, and one of the things that stuck out to me was that they're less worried about being right all the time and more worried about three qualities: being knowledgeable, approachable, and humble...with the understanding that with those three qualities, you're going to eventually get to the point where you're almost always right, with the added benefit that you've trained yourself to remove ego from the equation, so you're less likely to fall prey to the trap of clinging to bad information/belief/assumption just because you want to look correct.

I'm glad you addressed the aversion to being wrong because I think that's part of the core of what's causing so many problems in America today (and maybe other places, but I can only speak to my own familiarity).

I feel like as a society we have created an environment where we demonstrate and reinforce to children from like kindergarten onward that the worst thing you can possibly do is be wrong. Someone who is always right is seen as smart, capable...in short, a winner.

Conversely, if you're ever wrong, that completely and permanently undoes your entire argument/position and not only that, but you're branded as unreliable/untrustworthy, uninformed, stupid, dishonest, or naive.

We expect perfection in correctness, and while being right is the expectation, being wrong is a permanent black mark that is treated as a more serious negative than being right is considered as a positive. Nobody just assumes that if you're right about one thing that you'll be right about all things, but if you get something wrong, there's a very real shift toward double-checking or verifying anything else that comes after.

We even tease friends, family, and children for mispronouncing words or singing incorrect lyrics. Basically, being incorrect is so stigmatized that we reinforce to everyone, children and adults alike, that it's better to not even try...not even make an attempt or join into a conversation...than to risk being wrong. When someone is wrong we use words like "admit" like it's a crime, or admit defeat...and that just creates an environment where nobody is ever encouraged to speak up about anything for fear of (gasp!) being wrong.

And now we're coming full circle on this at the highest levels, with our leaders being blatantly and objectively wrong...and absolutely dead set on avoiding having to admit that at all costs, setting a precedent that has oozed into even casual discourse among regular people. It seems like it used to be that being wrong was bad enough, but to dig in and refuse to admit it was even worse...lately it seems that admitting you were wrong is now even worse than doubling down on it...so now we have a situation where we can't even agree on basic facts because one or more sides will be wrong but would rather insist on their position than just acknowledge​ they were incorrect.

Wouldn't the combo of the first amendment and the supremacy clause pretty neatly dismantle the new Louisiana law?

Right.

Honestly for as much "woe is me" that they crammed into this piece, my takeaway was mostly just, "Hmmm...good."

Like...I love rural PA, I'm just not wild about a lot of the people who live there. They vote against my own interests (and theirs), disproportionately influence state government, and welcome corporations that proudly destroy the environment while taking a hostile stance toward anyone not like them.

This isn't down to every last person, of course, but broadly speaking, the ones who aren't fitting that template are also not the ones doing most of the dying.

So the piece is reading, to me, more as, "the people most responsible for keeping the shitty aspects of Pennsylvania shitty are dying faster than they're breeding"...which is good news for the more reasonable residents of the state.

Are you from rural PA?

So you just don't work at all?

Knocked it out of the park with this comment.

Sincerely,

Someone originally from the same town as you, basically.

I'll assume that I'm just missing a reference or three because the alternative is that I'm having a stroke.

Hell, in the inter-war period, mainstream America was even generally pretty comfortable with...uh...if not actual fascism, at least things that looked and sounded a lot like fascism.

Because they've also got the lie-a-beetus.