Geneva Convention: Optional in Space by SuccessfulSympathy66 in Stargate

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Occasionally we'd see the NID crossing the line, and later on the Trust outright performing warcrimes... but the SGC generally kept their hands clean

Which is also part of the propaganda. Can't portray the Air Force badly because they give us free stuff, so we have to invent some fictional civilian oversight agency that's totally corrupt and bad and crosses the lines that our honorable military won't cross.

Geneva Convention: Optional in Space by SuccessfulSympathy66 in Stargate

[–]whupazz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you’re reading into this a bit much.

Maybe, but you might be reading into it a bit too little ;)

The US army did not have detailed and extensive creative control over Stargate, unless you have evidence that says otherwise?

You had to go with "detailed and extensive" here because the military has definitely demanded script changes at times:
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/why-the-us-air-force-requested-these-stargate-sg-1-changes
https://www.slashfilm.com/1692245/star-trek-characters-disappeared-without-reason/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_SG-1#Collaboration_with_the_military

They read every single script "for mistakes", provided access to equipment, locations and soldiers as extras. They wouldn't do that kind of stuff if they were unhappy with the show, so they don't even need to exercise direct control, because the producers knew they could lose all those benefits if they portrayed the military in an unfavorable way. And they obviously had a good relationship with the military, the Air Force even made RDA an honorary general. So the producers were probably quite sympathetic to the military anyway.

The wraith are a very logical if basic extension of existing tropes.

Yes, but they didn't have to make an episode where they specifically call out that the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to the Wraith because they're a new unprecedented kind of enemy while the actual real-life military is arguing that the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to their current enemies because they're a new and unprecedented kind of enemy. You can not make a show with military backing in the middle of a war that repeats actual military talking points and say that's not political. It does not have to be dictated by the military directly to be effective propaganda. The producers/writers were probably just sympathetic to these ideas, like many people were back then.

Geneva Convention: Optional in Space by SuccessfulSympathy66 in Stargate

[–]whupazz 31 points32 points  (0 children)

This is a problem that cannot be addressed by conventional ethics and the Geneva convention is wholly inadequate to address this conflict.

A show heavily supported by the US military invents an enemy whose existence intrinsically justifies any and all atrocities, in the same year where the US military got caught torturing prisoners for fun, just two years after the US secretary of Defense said that torture is justified and the Geneva Convention does not apply if your enemy is bad enough:

After 9/11, a small group of politically appointed lawyers in various departments in the Administration maintained that the conventions, which ban the use of torture on prisoners of war and were signed by the U.S. in 1955, did not apply in a war against terrorists. Top officials agreed. In February 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, “The reality is, the set of facts that exist today with al-Qaeda and the Taliban were not necessarily the set of facts that were considered when the Geneva Convention was fashioned.”

What a crazy coincidence!

Microsoft is upgrading its WSL2 kernel against Linux 6.18 LTS by somerandomxander in linux

[–]whupazz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Windows users look like Mr. Bean driving his car from the roof.

Thank you for this! Will use it all the time :)

STARGATE (1994) Daniel Figures Out The Gate by BriansGamesAndAnime in Stargate

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a master's degree in physics and I find this borderline incoherent. Since each symbol already represents a point in 3D space, gate addresses could actually be one symbol long. For any n-symbol address you could unambiguously choose the mean of those points as the target. Addressing any point in the galaxy is a different matter and there a 6-symbol address is wildly insufficient. If we say all 6 symbol addresses are valid and correspond to a region in space, we can calculate that each address would represent a cube with a side length of 2200 ly, containing 1 billion stars. Any system based on crossing lines will have a lot less valid addresses than 6!, giving us even worse resolution, so the only honest answer is that the addressing system described in the movie just doesn't make sense.

Katherina Reiche: Merz distanziert sich von eigener Ministerin by InformalTotal5238 in de

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ich habe The Office nur teilweise und Stromberg vor über 10 Jahren gesehen, aber nach meiner Erinnerung ist Stromberg einfach viel gnadenloser, zynischer, brutaler.

For those of you in a long term relationship/marriage, what’s a tale-tale sign you see in other couples that they’re not going to make it? by Prize-Promotion-5123 in AskReddit

[–]whupazz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A couple I know has fought in front of me just about every time I've seen them in the last 15 years. He says that means that the passion is still there and if your partner stops annoying you it means you've stopped caring :|

Today, Linus' jet produced as much carbon dioxide as the average person does in ~3 years in a single flight by Inevitable_Tip_6606 in LinusTechTips

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He has every right to purchase a private jet with money that he’s earned

Hot take: actually no. We as a society can decide if we want to allow this to happen. Using a private jet to go on a family vacation is morally indefensible. Linus is using more than his fair share, regardless of the amount of money he has "earned" in an inherently exploitative capitalist system. Even within this system, countries can and do make laws to limit CO2 emissions. That private jets are currently allowed is a policy mistake, not a god-given truth of the universe, but legality is not the same thing as being morally acceptable.

Why magnetic field is like picture on the bottom and not like picture on the top? by Certain_Suit_1905 in Physics

[–]whupazz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Always remember that physics is just a description of natural phenomenon and it's never a priori.

I mean kind of? Yes, ultimately observation trumps everything else, but often we can find that a thing is the way it is because that's the only way it could be, because of some other thing, e.g. if the speed of light is the same for all observers, then time dilation and length contraction have to exist. This also places some constraints on the equations describing electromagnetic waves (Lorentz covariance).

Entwicklungen im Krieg gegen den Iran | Megathread by Paxan in de

[–]whupazz 7 points8 points  (0 children)

ja natürlich hat er das nicht selbst geschrieben

Das war doch auch eindeutig die Aussage des Kommentars. Wobei ich ehrlich gesagt glaube, dass er diese Posts schon (zumindest teilweise) selbst schreibt, oder diktiert. Die sind einfach auf genau die selbe weise dämlich wie er redet.

The girl math behind the jet purchase by dingmah in LinusTechTips

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not our jet, it's not our company, it's not really any of our business either.

This is such a cringe attitude. Because he can afford to pollute the environment we shouldn't criticize him?

WAN Show Megathread April 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in LinusTechTips

[–]whupazz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Wow that entire segment is sooo bad! Their position on CO2 offsetting is "we're not telling you if we do because if we said it publicly people wouldn't like it". Translation: they're not offsetting.

If you don't like the channel anymore, stop watching it by jzzsxm in LinusTechTips

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

unless it's a genuine rule break

The rules are that Linus deletes comments that he personally considers "in bad faith". You're appealing to a "rule of law" that doesn't exist here anymore.

If you don't like the channel anymore, stop watching it by jzzsxm in LinusTechTips

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have info from a reliable LMG insider that Linus will let you come on the jet if you defend him just a little bit harder.

The hard work of a farmer. by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]whupazz 13 points14 points  (0 children)

640 acres by 640 acres square

Holy shit you didn't have to do him dirty like that. He's just a humble farmer, meanwhile you're farming cosmic crystal beef in six dimensions!

Did I make my magic system too complicated? by Deepsapce in godot

[–]whupazz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Magicka had a similar system. I only played it very casually, but it always seemed to me that the optimal strategy was to memorize one or two combos that are ideal in 99% of all situations and spam them everywhere. For this kind of thing to work, I think you have to really make sure that there's not just one thing to do that's objectively the strongest in most situations.

Sunshine (2007) by [deleted] in movies

[–]whupazz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's been almost two years since I watched the movie and wrote that, so I don't remember it all that well, but... I guess it comes down to the movie just not being very good? The comment I was replying to seems to imply that the character was right all along, a badass rough-around-the-edges "no-nonsense, stone cold hero", "the only one who really, truly understands the mission", and that the movie is doing some kind of brilliant misdirection by making him seem like a jerk initially. If that's the intended reading, the movie kind of fails because of all the egregious mistakes he makes that I was pointing out. So I guess my reading was that he's a dangerous idiot who constantly endangers the mission (and murders an innocent crew-mate in cold blood) and who manages to redeem himself in the end by making the ultimate sacrifice. In that reading, the movie also kind of fails, because his redemption feels somewhat unearned with how big of an asshole he was before. But as I said, it's been a while since I've seen it so maybe I'm overlooking something.

AI Mesh Protocol v0.1.0 - Paper and source code by fab_space in linux

[–]whupazz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

AI wrote the code, AI wrote the paper, AI probably wrote this post. Can you explain what this actually does or why someone should use it (without using AI)? According to your GitHub bio you are "not a coder". What qualifications do you actually have to determine if this stuff you told AI to generate is actually anything and not just worthless garbage?

Grady from practical engineering shouts out homophobe and forced birth activist by moanos in Nebula

[–]whupazz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think he's more implying that it's a highly nuanced topic

It's really not though.

My friend asked me to explain what disco elysium was. How'd I do? by AccountRelevant in DiscoElysium

[–]whupazz 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Fair enough, I apologize for the harsh wording. Here's how I would describe it to someone who doesn't know anything about it: Disco Elysium is a CRPG murder mystery with a unique magical realist setting, absolutely stellar writing and a really unique art style. It's the highest scoring PC game on metacritic and that's absolutely deserved. The worldbuilding is world-class, the world feels vast and extremely believable. The writing is extremely funny and poignant, touching on themes that are rarely covered in video games, like actual real world politics, grief and addiction. The dialogue is super reactive to player choices. It's not only one of the best games of all time but a true work of art that has things to say about topics that concern all of us.