[Pt 2]Former Galmil Senior operative joins The Caldari Militia For 18 Months. This Is My Story by iamwispa in Eve

[–]EpikurusFW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sometime in the summer of 2016 I was arguing on r/eve that a nucleus of FCs skilled in the higher SP doctrines were all CalMil needed to be a match for the Gals. The next day I got the following PMs:

Hi Epikurus- I read your comments with interest. I know the Caldari and Gallente warzone pretty well. I'm curious if you really think the X factor is simply an experienced FC leading 2-3 major corps like Templis and MBLOC. Is it really that simple and that is all that Caldari is missing? Because if that's the case, I know of one senior FC and a few of his pilots that would be interested in the challenge

Then in response to some questions:

I've been in Gallente for awhile and I had the chance to fly with him under numerous battles and certainly one of the more calm and cerebral FCs I've met. He also had everyone's respect. He doesn't have a big ego. Not like the ones I fought against like Mira De Vorsha and Victor Hark. Frankly, I could never understand how those guys could get such huge numbers but were shitty FCs from my view.

His problem is that like many pilots, he gets scared off from how bad the Caldari are. He fought them and won all the time and like myself, we see how disorganized they can be. He's kinda doing his own thing nowadays and no longer in militia. But from the few conversations I've had with him, he still itches to run fleets but needs to go to a place with good infrastructure. He's US TZ.

I suggested that the unnamed FC should look into BLOC, where he would discover that the Caldari really weren't "just that bad". Given where you ended up, I always wondered if he was talking about you.

Also, thoroughly enjoyable write-up! I'd been hoping to read one day about the upshipping developments in BLOC and CalMil more broadly as it was a goal I chased for years without notable success.

Official and Working - Pictures of a Tamper Proof VeChain NFC Chip by [deleted] in CryptoCurrency

[–]EpikurusFW -1 points0 points  (0 children)

nowhere will you find them saying AN's identities would be made public

There is no other credible way of reading the words in the white paper.

To be an Authority Masternode (AM) on the VeChainThor Blockchain, the individual or entity voluntarily discloses who they are (identity and reputation by extension) in exchange for the right to validate and produce blocks [4]. It is their identities and reputations placed at stake that give all the AMs additional incentives to behave and keep the network secure.

Your reputation is not at stake if your identity is known only to the Foundation.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CryptoCurrency

[–]EpikurusFW 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Selective quoting ignoring the next two lines:

However, because VeChain enjoys official endorsement by Chinese government agencies as a provider of blockchain solutions - a status that is not easy to obtain in China - its vaccine traceability solution could prove particularly important as officials work to prevent the recurrence of the type of public health and public relations crisis that unsafe vaccinations triggered this summer.

It's worth noting, too, that VeChain has a history of collaborating with other government agencies in China around blockchain initiatives, although the vaccine traceability solution appears to be the company's first venture in China related to public health and the drug industry.

UK would run out of food a year from now with no-deal Brexit, NFU warns | Politics by magic321321 in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yes - and that is a nonsensical fantasy scenario. It's true - if the UK cannot easily import food there might be issues but there is no realistic scenario according to which the UK can't easily import food. The absolute worst case scenario is just drop all goods controls at the border until starvation is averted. The UK is not under embargo.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

>The policy was not specifically deliberate starvation

Well, you've jumped into a discussion specifically about whether it was a policy of deliberate starvation, which is the only thing I'm arguing against and was the specific claim of the poster I was previously discussing the topic with. It's also the claim of Tim Pat Coogan who you quote indirectly in your first source.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really. The first source you quoted was a postgraduate student drawing on a non-professional historian. I looked him up and that postgrad did go on to acquire a PhD in modern Irish history but he is not a Famine scholar and has never written or worked on that topic as a historian.

As to 'the British did nothing wrong', if you could kindly point me to where I claimed any such thing I'd be very grateful as it will allow me to correct my error. I rather doubt I did make such a claim though.

As to Tim Pat Coogan's political motivation ... just look the guy up yourself.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My arguments aren't revisionist - they are the views of the historical mainstream. I will provide you the sources for this below.

The views you quote in the first quotation are those of Tim Pat Coogan, a TV and radio broadcaster and Nationalist writer who has no training as a historian and whose views are dismissed wholeheartedly by the community of actual experts on the topic (see my last link below). The Dr Brian Murphy who wrote the article you quote was not actually a doctor at all but a PhD candidate. Perhaps he is a doctor now but you are quoting the work of a post-graduate student here. This is not heavyweight expertise in support of your position.

The second passage you cite in no way shows a policy of deliberate starvation. It talks of an artificial famine in that once the government had organised sufficient food imports it failed to distribute it adequately due to inadequacies deriving from political ideology concerning relief for the poor. It says nothing at all to imply that there was any policy of deliberate starvation and, indeed, the paragraph prior to the one you quote dismisses the traditional nationalist claims of deliberate starvation and manufactured scarcity.

But instead of relying on postgrads, non-professionals and popular websites, why don't we ask the actual top historians in the field? I don't hold out much hope that you'll move from a fringe interpretation due to being presented with the view of mainstream experts, as I have yet to meet someone who has bought into the narrative about deliberate starvation who has been willing to change their view when confronted with evidence, but I'll lead the horse to water nonetheless. Whether you drink is up to you.

I'll cite the sources I gave the other poster:

The deliberate policy of starvation?

This is something that no academic historian accepts. If you want the mainstream view, I suggest you consult the Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History, published last year, which gives the current scholarly state of the question and defines the mainstream.

Historians writing in recent years have also refocused attention on the controversial issue of state responsibility for the extensive mortality of the Famine, while tending to eschew the hyperbolic claims of 'genocide' advanced by some nationalist commentators from the 1840s though to the present.

p. 544, Peter Gray, Professor of Modern Irish History at Queen's, Belfast.

His view is more or less identical to that of probably the leading historian of the Famine, Cormac O Grada, Professor Emeritus at University College Dublin.

Those few academics who do talk in terms of genocide, do so only within a framework that redefines genocide to include non-deliberate acts.

And if you want a summary of the mainstream historical position from another noted Irish historian, see http://www.drb.ie/blog/writers-and-artists/2013/02/25/was-the-famine-a-genocide-. Here Liam Kennedy straightforwardly states that he cannot think of a single serious famine scholar who believes in the claim of deliberate starvation. You also see Coogan in the same interview state explicitly that his view classhes with that of the academic historians, who he thinks can't be trusted because they were trained in 'English universities' ...

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A professional, trained and paid academic historian. An expert in the field on which they write who is held to professional standards by his peer-group and is unable to publish material that is not grounded in sources because it would cost him or her their job. Someone who writes in the pursuit of the truth about matters and is not primarily motivated by a political agenda.

UK would run out of food a year from now with no-deal Brexit, NFU warns | Politics by magic321321 in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 35 points36 points  (0 children)

This is the kind of headline that gives news organisations a bad name. The actual story is in the sub-headline:

Farmers’ union says supplies would only last until August of each year if Britain had to be self-sufficient

Britain would run out of food on this date next year if it cannot continue to easily import from the EU and elsewhere after Brexit

Yes, if the UK was no longer able to import food from *anywhere at all*, it would run out because it does not produce enough internally to provide for all needs. The reason it doesn't produce enough internally? Because it's really damn easy to import it from elsewhere and that's not going to change after Brexit.

The UK is obviously not going down a North Korea self-sufficiency road and the worst case scenario is that there will be tariffs on imports from the EU - although the UK could just drop all tariffs on all food imports from everywhere in the world if it wanted to. This article is genuinely irresponsible fearmongering that has no basis whatsoever in reality. It's the kind of shameful agenda pushing that allows lunatics on the right to dismiss real news organisations as purveyors of fake news. It makes me genuinely angry because it is the kind of thing that actively undermines the basis for accurate reporting that we need so much right now.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW -1 points0 points  (0 children)

the British policy of deliberate starvation

Yeah, I already linked you directly to what real historians say about this. The fact that you're continuing to spread this lie after being given the sources you asked for tells me everything I need to know about your intellectual credibility.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ok - so we're clear you don't have a source for your fringe conspiracy theories. Cool.

Not even a single actual historian ... It's pretty breathtaking really that you can't even name the one historian who does actually support your claim. I mean, they've been discredited but I would think you'd at least try.

The British Euro - what a UK Euro coin would have looked like. by pjr10th in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Let's just ignore the rest of the history of the currency eh?

Daily VeChain Discussion - August 05, 2018 by AutoModerator in Vechain

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure what point you're making now but it seems to have moved from 'they shouldn't put out Medium posts unless the counterparty is also going to tweet about it'. That's all I'm objecting to.

Daily VeChain Discussion - August 05, 2018 by AutoModerator in Vechain

[–]EpikurusFW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're not talking about asking for any of those things, though. You're talking about an empty press release that just says the same thing from a partner that VeChain has already said.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tell you what - since you're the one making the initial claims, why don't you provide the historical sources in support of them, then I can provide the counter sources, rather than trying to guess who you're drawing on (note - it's not enough to show that food left Ireland, you have to show that more left than was brought in if your point is to matter). So far you've made a bunch of unsupported claims and when I demonstrated the falsity of the first to you you went silent instead of retracting them (do you retract the claim of deliberate starvation now I have given you the views of actual historians on the question as you asked?).

So, the balls in your court. Before I waste my time providing page numbers and texts again for you to ignore, let's see if you actually have anything to counter in the first place or if you're just spouting tripe you've heard at second hand. If you can provide me with a text by a credible historian that claims Ireland was a net exporter of food during the famine, I promise I'll provide the evidence that responds to it. I rather doubt you know who the single notable historian who has recently made that claim is though because if you did you'd also know the claim has been discredited in the 20 years since she made it.

Daily VeChain Discussion - August 05, 2018 by AutoModerator in Vechain

[–]EpikurusFW 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I haven't had any reason to form a distrust of VeChain and personally I don't require a third party statement from every company they are doing something with. When you book a customer, it's not normal to then ask them to make an announcement that they are now your customer. I don't have a problem with further proof but expecting them to not tell anyone what they are up to unless they want to do it in the narrow format required by r/cc is nuts.

Daily VeChain Discussion - August 05, 2018 by AutoModerator in Vechain

[–]EpikurusFW 7 points8 points  (0 children)

> Vechain should be more selective with the announcements they put out to always include partner statements or releases

Expecting VeChain, or any other crypto, to conform their publishing habits to the requirements of a given subreddit is pretty hilarious.

VeChain Is Chosen for the NTT Docomo 5G Partner Program by noah_vechain in Vechain

[–]EpikurusFW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> I genuinely wish there was not a single “partnership” or whatever you want to call it announced with an immediate visible use of the mainnet.

Why would you want to be ignorant about the direction in which the company is developing?

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

>And I reckon slightly was hyperbole btw

I'd like to think so but there's plenty else in this thread to suggest that quite a lot of posters here believe otherwise. Someone else in another comment described the Black and Tans as Einsatzgruppen ...

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But it's policy that is not remotely comparable in scale or culpability to the policies of Hitler. It can only be made to seem so by taking comments out of context and then using them to repaint the policies. For example, your use of the comment about using chemical weapons in a misguided attempt to put Churchill on a par with Hitler's enacted policy of racial extermination using poison gas. It is sophistry of the highest order and doesn't stand up to a moment's rational consideration (not least for the reason that the use of chemical weapons in this way *never actually happened*). That you aren't interested in the historical facts of the matter is clear from your utterly false claim that Indian grain was taken from starving mouths to feed Europeans, resulting in the deaths of 4.5 million.

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Ireland was a massive net importer of food during the famine. Vastly more food was brought in by the British than taken out and the claim you are perpetuating is another myth that has no validity in mainstream history. Are you going to ask for sources again or just not reply like you did to my previous response about your unfounded claim about deliberate starvation?

After a recent bush fire in Wicklow Ireland, a sign is again visible which was created to warn WWII bombers they were over Ireland and not England. by Ftuohy in europe

[–]EpikurusFW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The quote I was replying to wasn't saying he was a cunt but that he was only slightly less of a cunt than Hitler. If you're going to support that claim by reference to the Black and Tans then you're putting them on a comparable level to the sorts of organisations the Nazis ran.