I don’t think that’s the case. It’s a fairly easy thing for them to do (i.e. they just tell other people to do it and it’s not their problem anymore) but will win points with the president and divert attention from whatever fuckery they are up to. Alternatively, there is a non zero chance that he’ll forget about it in a few weeks anyways, so maybe they don’t even have to do anything.

The tech bros don’t give a fuck if the unwashed masses think they are sycophants. Have any of them faced real backlash for it yet? People say mean things about them, sure. But it doesn’t effect their wealth or power.

Ooof, this is a hard one. I am so, so, so conflict adverse. I don’t feel like I can have normal conflict with most people because they put words in my mouth, tell me I think certain things etc. Making incorrect assumptions about me is the #1 thing someone can do to set me off 😅

It took several years of being married, but we finally figured out conflict lol. You mention being able to have conflict with a safe person (your mom) but I still want to say a few things about that:

• I don’t bring up something that upsets me in the moment it’s happening, unless it’s something we’ve talked about before and I want to be like “it’s happening now!” This is because I can’t give helpful info about what I’m feeling at that moment. I might have to say something like, “I am very upset but I can’t talk about this right now, let’s come back to it” if I’m visibly upset and my partner is confused/concerned.
• Conflicts are never me vs him, it’s us vs the problem. The problem might be that he has a behavior that hurts my feelings, but it comes with the assumption that he’s not doing it on purpose. More than likely, we both need to change the way we are doing something to stop the situation that is causing me upset. This assumes a healthy, respectful relationship. Abuse is never your fault.
• We pick our battles. Is it a minor annoyance? Can you let it go? If you honestly can’t then you should address it. But as an example for me, I’ve learned to let go of being pissed about a certain cupboard door being left open. Nothing bad will happen if it is open. No one will hit their head. Nothing will get into the cupboard. If he’s left it open, he’s probably tired. I can just close it and give him that grace, just like he does for me.
• When we want to bring something up, we ask permission to enter that kind of conversation. It takes attention and some level of emotional regulation, and it’s not something you can half ass or do while multitasking. We also clearly end the conversation or we will go in forever. We’re both neurodivergent so we will just keep going, branching off to other topics trying to understand each other deeply, etc. We give each other permission to take a break or come back another day. Again, it will not do us any good if one or both of us are overstimulated/tired/etc.

With other people it’s harder. The “us against the problem” advice is still important. However, if you don’t think the other person can see that way, you might need to ask yourself if you need to raise your issue with them or be more strategic in doing so.

I will ask myself about the relationship and what level of care I owe them and what level of care I can expect from them. Sometimes people just want to be heard so they will unload on you and that’s the end of it. Other times people will want what you can’t give them or don’t owe them, and that one is way harder for me. I have a hard time not taking on their emotions, or taking accusations of not caring or being lazy personally. At that point I usually just have to tell myself that I can’t control how they see me or how they feel. If I’m doing everything I can to be respectful and they are just mad at me because, for example, they think my job should be X but it is Y, then there is nothing I can do about it other than being like, 'Sorry this isn’t something I can help you with".

Some people will try their hardest to make their feelings your problem even when they certainly are not. I have found it is when they lack agency or are just so worn down they don’t know what else to do. We can give them grace, but we can’t do the impossible, which is please everyone.

Tl;Dr: conflict sucks, it gets easier with practice, and it’s helpful to focus on what you can control which includes deciding when and how you raise issues.

That too! Why not also make money from it?

Moving to a rural area and realizing how fucking hard it is.

The hill I will die on: rugged individualism as strength in a post-disaster world is a lie that is sold to appeal to ego in an individualistic society, and also to prevent the formation of community.

That doesn’t apply to many existing rural communities, who of course know better.

I’ve had a hard time separating this song from the idea of manifest destiny ever since Jack Layton famously performed it on the campaign trail and faced that criticism. I realise that I’m probably missing the point, and so were the people who “translated” it to ‘canadian’.

15 years later I now hear it as the realization that the american dream is a lie. North America was colonized and the colonizers were promised all of its riches and freedom from serfdom. But there are still no trespassing signs, and people are still dependent on religious and state aid, despite the vast abundance.

I think the song ends with him being like “well fuck you I’m going after that freedom anyways” which doesn’t quite match my interpretation of the lyrics before that part, but we see the world differently in the current era and I’m not sure how much Guthrie might have known about colonialism.

Hackers like to hack.

Bug bounties can be lucrative, but they are also a way to indulge in the joy of hacking without worrying about legal ramifications.

I love Aunty Donna!

I do not love the idea of walk-in kilns. Mine opens from the top and is much smaller lol.

Something that really annoys me is when people are super rigid with language. I’m not talking about when people are intentionally precise and check in to make sure they are understood (u r angels, honestly 🙏) but when people have no understanding about how culture impacts communication.

The internet is giant. English is spoken in so many different ways all over the world. I wonder if I’m more sympathetic to this because of the autism and knowing how easy it is to be misunderstood, or if it’s living in a place with a lot of immigration so that I can get to know how english is spoken in different english speaking regions as well as how people who learned english later in life communicate.

An IRL example that always comes to mind is when I was a child and visiting family in the southern US. Someone asked me what I thought of something and I said, “It’s nice!” enthusiastically. Well, apparently that’s the wrong thing to say and a great insult because “nice” is a code word for “I don’t like it, I’m not going to pretend I do, but I don’t want to stray too far from social norms and say it clearly”. Where I am from it is a genuine positive assessment (unless it’s said sarcastically, which isn’t what I did). It didn’t matter when I told them I didn’t mean any offense and that the word has different connotations where I’m from. I should have spoken english the right way. Their way.

I am preparing my eye balls 👀

Thank you for your kind words.

I’m actually working on an art project that uses a mismatch between production technique and end usage as commentary. If I ever finish it, I will share it in this community because it is an expression of my experiences with autism.

This next part isn’t a direct reply to you, but I’d like to use your comment as a jumping off point for a massive infodump lol:

It’s not possible to achieve perfection with the methods I use in pottery. That is not the point. If I wanted a perfectly formed object, I’d be doing slip casting (molds) and not hand building. I’m not knocking slip casting as either skill or art form, nor am I saying this object shows any level of skill at hand building. It doesn’t have to be quite this janky 😅

Its okay of people think this is a poorly made piece. It kind of is. My unreasonable wish is that folks would be able to tell what parts are poor execution (either by choice or lack of skill) vs limitations of the method.

Clay has a memory. Depending on how an object is formed, if you don’t align all the little clay bits in the right direction they will spring back into a different shape during drying or its two trips through the kiln. You can’t tell by looking at an object if it will happen.

Hand building presents the biggest challenge in preventing this. Both throwing and casting involve working with a wetter clay so you are more likely to get the alignment correct even deep within an object. Apart from being way faster and having less material loss, this is why plates are most often cast in production settings.

This object involved connecting 7 slabs of clay (bottom, wall, 5 partitions). They are attached by scoring and slipping, and then adding additional clay at the joints and smoothing it to reinforce the seam. That’s where the bulges come from in the curved part of each section. The wall is pushed into the partition, leaving the curved part to flex because it has not been compressed in the same direction as the joint. I could have spent more time compressing the outer wall in different directions to redirect that ‘spring’ but didn’t 🤷‍♀️ However, even if I did one would still expect some deflection.

In contrast, here are some throw plates. They are my first ones that I decided to fire so they are also janky but you can see how the technique used influences what flaws are present.

These are formed by pressing the clay down while it’s spinning, which directs the particles to spread along the base. I kept the throw marks (concentric circles within the centre part) visible and picked a glaze that accentuated them, but the glaring flaw here is how droopy the green plate’s rim is. The clay is too thick and heavy there for the type of foot it has, so it drooped a bit in the kiln. There are ways to prevent this, but because I have never fired this shape before (with this clay or otherwise), I didn’t know how it would behave. I’m honestly super proud the damn thing didn’t form a giant crack in the centre, which is a common failure with thrown plates.

Test bowls are super common, and usually have more info that can be gleaned from them than just one type of application.

I didn’t make these:

I was just being lazy lol

Layered glazes need to be tested for food safety so I try and keep them in on the outside when I use them.

I will probably make more, yes. The original plan had fewer edges and a much more organic shape. I think I was doing a bunch of hand building so I did this for practice. I keep a sketchbook full of ideas and once and a while sneak one in with all the more routine things I’m making for other people.

I squished some mud together m8.

Agree with the revolutionary access to simple computers for hobbyists.

I haven’t used them much myself but now that I am thinking more about automation at home I’m realizing there are much cheaper and safer (lower current) options for things I want to achieve as compared to electronic or electromechanical control systems I am familiar with from industrial settings.

I think Raspberry Pi played a big part in creating the environment where there was a market for all this other innovation.

I believe in you.

I put something out on the curb last week with a “free, working” sign and I can’t begin to describe the relief in it being gone. It sat in the house for months because we didn’t want to have to deal with it if no one took it.

Congrats on freeing yourself of that burden.

The headline isn’t the timeline change but the mechanism change. The researchers used new data from observing the death of a star and applied that behavior to a simulation of our own solar system to see the impact.

Updating models based on new data isn’t pointless, it’s fundamental to science.

Terminal instability refers to the mechanism by which the outer planets will be destroyed: changes to the sun’s mass will change the planets orbit in asymmetrical ways, which will cause the planets to interfere with each other’s orbits, furthering and speeding up the instability.

FTA:

“Newton’s envisioned instability is real after all,” the team. “He was mistaken only about the perpetrator.”

The news isn’t that the solar system will eventually collapse (the concept of entropy isn’t new) but that the mass loss is not predictable and smooth and the impact of the irregular mass loss fucks with their orbit:

The recently measured white dwarf recoil demands asymmetric mass loss that is most readily attributed to discrete, independently directed ejections that impulsively perturb stellar motion.

…We just have to vote…

The title of the post says voting isn’t enough.