massive_bereavement

If anyone’s curious, modern “virtual” pinballs, which are just a computer under a large screen inside a pinball frame, replicate this by using an accelerometer (like the one in our phones).

The pinball emulation software is fed tilt metrics, and usually that software decides when to call it fault.

And if anyone is really curious you can read in detail here: http://mjrnet.org/pinscape/BuildGuideV2/BuildGuide.php?sid=tilt

New conspiracy! Jenny was actually working for the feds.

Yeah, I eventually realized that most family physicians take about 15 minutes per patient, so yeah I guess probably not 35 but still…

Is he having avocado toast though?

How that works economically for him? That’s like making 35 bucks an hour before taxes…

Maybe he can meet multiple patients in an hour, but there would still be fluctuations.

Such a great album… I miss that continuity.

All of this to be able to fire the cashiers.

SO UN FAIR!

That ship sailed, sank, and James Cameron filmed a soapy movie about it.

It depends if you can fit in with a gamepad inside that puppy.

Ok, I guess I underestimated the M. I. C.

Yeah, no such thing as precision bombing.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/06/20/the-persistent-myth-of-u-s-precision-bombing/
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1996/november/strategic-bombing-always-myth

?

There’s a high percentage of Chinese workers that invested their savings in real estate instead of having a pension. And there’s no welfare*, which means a lot of people who will be left on the street when they are too old to work.

*After a complain, I did some research so I can provide enough clarity on my statement:

• A new pensions system was built on top of the previous communist system (1986~1990s), then in 2004 the gov added enterprise annuities and finally, an IRA system was launched.
  This last part was launched in 2022, which finally covered about 1.05 billion people.
• There is though a difference in which plan can someone join, depending on their residence permit (either rural or urban).
  The residence permit doesn’t have a link to where you live, so a rural hukou won’t become an urban hukou just for moving to the city.
• Why does this matter? Well, an urban hukou will get about $461 US dollaridoos, while the Old-Age Insurance for Urban and Rural Residents plan (entirely used for rural residence permit holders and unsalaried urbant residents), it’s about $25 US dollars and a smile.

The why enterprise annuities didn’t work (0.25% of companies enrolled) is a very complex one but let’s say is mostly due to the abnormally high statutory pension contribution rate.

So up until 2022, a little more than 500 million people had few options for extra savings beyond those $25 dollars/person, and that was real estate (you know, the thing that always goes up).

With IRAs now, and a possible conversion from the two main basic pension plans into a centralized one, it’s possible newer generations will have a foothold for a safer savings method, however there are several challenges on the horizon:

• All the economic turmoil of COVID-19, foreign firms moving out, pandemic lockdowns, etc… is making it harder to strengthen the pension system.
• Demographic issues and high youth unemployment.
• Runs on small banks.
• Recent cuts on local health care benefits.
• The statutory pension contribution rate was lowered, but is still about 16% Iirc. This means though the pension bags are getting 4% less full every year.

Altogether this could very well be a ticking time bomb.

Dunk!

Also pretending you are a medic is a big nono on the Geneva’s convention.

It looks like they are trying to get the war crime bingo.

Definitely not saying that they planned it, but that the relationship between Russia and Hamas, enabled by Iran, might had a role in enabling them to happen. My point comes mostly from here:
https://www.mei.edu/publications/essential-questions-about-russia-hamas-link-evidence-and-its-implications
(something tells me you didn’t go through my links ;) )

In any case… what do I know?

You gotta read what you’ve shared: US gov said they can’t trace a direct link to Iran, though there is clear evidence of coordination: https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204789074/israel-hamas-hezbollah-iran

Ties are clear: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/hamas-iran-israel-attack.html

Yes there’s no public conspiratorial evidence in the attacks, and probably even if there was nobody wants this to escalate it into a full blown war.

Your point that Hamas is independent is challenging because there are clear links and both economic and material support comes from the Republic. That said, AFAIK (and I know very little) I’ve been told that their collaboration isn’t hierarchical, so if Hamas decides to go in a blaze of glory, it could have been their own choice.

That said, while running the Syrian campaign Hamas had ties to other organization e.g. here, it seems that as the group shrank, their support base concentrated in Tehran (e.g. 1, 2).

What I refer mostly is this, while we can doubt the conclusions, the implications of Hamas being invited to Moscow, Bogdanov “unwavering support” and the common presence of certain materials made me think that even if neither Iran nor Russia had anything to do with it, they still had enough clarity given the support before the whole thing blew out.

This says otherwise: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/israel%E2%80%93hamas-war-iran-updates

I mean they have solid arguments, if you can provide similar sources or provable arguments I would appreciate it.

That was the goal pushed by Iran. By putting the Russian Invasion in the background, Western support diluted and those that oppose it could do it openly while Putin’s army goes full steam ahead of their elections.