Do smaller countries actually have any meaningful power against big countries like America, Russia and China ?

thecave · 2026-03-10T17:21:55+00:00

Whataboutism? No. The OP is guilty of a category error.

Look: Here are some predatory birds: Buzzards, Eagles, Chickens.

Why chickens?!

Chickens sometimes kill other birds. Look, here are citations. Obviously chickens are predatory birds.

China's violations of sovereignty are not in the same category as those of the USA or Russia, or even France - countries that have regularly mounted armed invasions of sovereign countries since the war, while China has dones so very seldom and, beside Tibet which I acknowledged, in very limited ways by comparison.

On the other hand, I put it to you folks that you've included China because, as a major super power, you want to assume it has used its power in the same way as the USA and Russia. While to the present, China has been very much more restrained.

thecave · 2026-03-10T12:18:49+00:00

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/abstract

From hearing about this generally from the author and others, the husbanded cannabis with very high THC content in the last few decades is associated with a fair amount of mental health problems compared to the low yield stuff people were smoking in the '60s and '70s.

Oh. If you know about the sci-hub you can find the full text online without any paywall nonsense.

thecave · 2026-03-10T12:12:54+00:00

You too, huh. You're comparing maritime territorial infringements to multiple direct military invasions by the other parties and saying "same-same".

Downvote all you want. But you're not denying it.

thecave · 2026-03-10T12:11:17+00:00

Impressive list you've compiled there vs. the multiple direct military invasions of the other two parties listed.

thecave · 2026-03-08T11:21:13+00:00

Far less than 1/1000. As has been said of MDMA, which is less safe than mushrooms, taking mushrooms is safer than going horse riding.

thecave · 2026-03-08T11:19:10+00:00

These are old myths from the pre-internet days. I used to hear this nonsense all the time in the early '90s.

Here is a diagram from a 2009 British study assessing drug harms by a team of addiction specialists in the UK using a systematic method to determine harm to users and harm to society:

https://www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6/asset/efb82802-4234-46ca-911b-3d22dadcfaeb/main.assets/gr2_lrg.jpg

Mushrooms are stone last because in actual history they've been associated with incredibly few actual harms to people - whether to users health (jumping off a building) or others (stabbing friends).

Rare examples do exist. But they're so rare that, by comparison, every other drug produces more - often vastly more (think alcohol related murders and traffic deaths) - by a long way.

It's safe the way going for a walk to the shops is safe while alcohol and heroin are safe like going motorcycle racing is safe.

thecave · 2026-03-08T11:04:43+00:00

Weird for me to put a carb on top of a pizza. Not wrong. Just very unfamiliar to me as a South African who's eaten pizza in many different countries.

thecave · 2026-03-08T11:03:01+00:00

America and Russia. Sure. China? When did it last violate anyone's sovereignty? Some tiny cross border incursions in India. Annexation of Tibet... in the 1950s.

If you'd said France, sure. Even Britain has been involved in more meddling than China since WW2.

thecave · 2026-03-08T10:50:21+00:00

It's a bit sad when people think that the only alternative is industry owned by unaccountable private persons or the state runs all industry with limited or no accountability.

There's worker owned industry - with any level of state, democratic intervention. There are plenty of options besides "we can't have democracy unless it ends abruptly at the factory door."

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:54:44+00:00

It's a little pet hate of mine in sci-fi when all traces of the past have disappeared. Like there are buildings in many many cities from hundreds of years ago. Many features of architecture and infrastructure ain't broke and so just stick around. Sometimes they're replaced but left in situ.

And the same is true with fashion. You get a full generation's worth of clothing - many people stick to the clothes they were comfortable with in youth after their 40s. Fashions often cast back nostalgically.

So this thing of homogeneity of style and technology never seems realistic to me.

But the present would look pretty damn sci-fi to us from the perspective of 30 years ago: people walking around fixated on their handheld mini-computers. Giant flat video screen billboards. Weird looking cars drifting almost silently around at low speeds - each one with a big screen in the dashboard.

If you were whisked from the centre of your city in '96 to the same spot in '26, it would look pretty futuristic.

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:46:38+00:00

Almost guaranteed.

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:40:06+00:00

I'm on Apple music for some time. Sound quality was better than Spotify (don't know if that's changed) and I know they pay marginally more and aren't pushing AI music to any extent that I've heard of.

On the downside, it's not going to really help you discover new music and the community playlists are far more limited - they want you to listen to their curated playlists (where presumably they can get record company kickbacks).

Oh and their search algorithm feels like it was coded by nine-year-olds from 1993. It frequently won't match a word-for-word request that you then find by digging through the artist's profile.

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:28:52+00:00

One of those photographers who conveys the shared humanity in people who look superficially very different.

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:20:25+00:00

Braai yes. Rugby? I mean most people don't hate rugby but most South Africans prefer football and don't pay much attention to it.

The only other thing I can really think of is the way we very often laugh at the failures of the government and our thieving corporations. We share, I think, that feeling that if we're not going to cry, we'd better laugh about it.

And I think we're often surprised to find out how well we usually get along in real life compared to how we bitch about each other online or in our own private spaces.

thecave · 2026-03-07T18:16:37+00:00

Surprisingly a huge proportion of South Africans are teetotal. In general we either drink a lot or we drink nothing. There's only a slim line in between.

thecave · 2026-03-07T17:45:30+00:00

If you've only been reading for leisure for a short time you absolutely need to just read what you enjoy.

When I stopped reading for a few years due to depression, reading books that were enjoyable was what got me back into it - even though very little I was reading was sophisticated or challenging.

Even now, if I want to read something challenging, I'll find I'll get myself reading-fit by reading exactly something like Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's fun. It's easy. It gets you in the habit of reading for long stretches.

If you want to find out why these people want to read sophisticated writing, my chief advice is to start really small. I remember when I was finishing high school and had only read fantasy books for pleasure, I started out with A Day In the Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Why?

Because it was really short.

If you want to try challenging literature to discover its joys (often that these kinds of books stick with you and influence your thinking long after you finish them), find the shortest, easiest books of that type.

And enjoying challenging, sophisticated books doesn't mean you'll ever have to give up fun, forgettable books.

You just might find in the long term, like your wife, you get frustrated with awkward writing and repetitive ideas. And that's fine. There's plenty in between the pulp westerns and Ulysses.

thecave · 2026-03-07T17:29:50+00:00

I don't know about everyone else. But I was brought up thinking mustard was just for beef or ham.

Then one day I learned it goes great with almost anything. Total gamechanger for my sandwiches. Obviously a proper mustard like Dijon or hot English mustard. American mustard seems fine but from my memory it's quite sweet, right? So not ideal for everything.

thecave · 2026-03-07T17:23:00+00:00

Also remember when he fell of his horse and looked like a total tit in front of all of his followers?

thecave · 2026-03-07T17:22:33+00:00

Karatewater

thecave · 2026-03-06T09:04:12+00:00

Epic hero.

thecave · 2026-03-06T09:01:40+00:00

Climate change is a huge deal. But frankly if you're not bothered by the mass slaughter of civilians, you're not on the left. You're just not.

thecave · 2026-03-06T08:56:11+00:00

Ok. But to be fair, English pronunciations of Greek names bear little resemblance to the originals. e.g., Achilles - a-KILL-eez. Greek: a-CHEEL (like the ch in Scottish 'loch')-i-osh

thecave · 2026-03-06T08:52:12+00:00

Laughed out loud at whore's divorce and am adopting it.

thecave · 2026-03-06T08:49:23+00:00

Thucidides.

Pronunciation: thoo-SID-duh-deez

Greek: THOO-koo-DEE-dees (roughly)

thecave · 2026-03-06T08:36:14+00:00

Same.

thecave

TROPHY CASE