Kachajal

I sure hope intergalactic-capable aliens would be smart enough to understand the concept of ownership, which seems to be the sticking point here.

Maybe they wouldn't if they evolved as a hive-mind, without predators, or without inter-group competition in some other way, but I doubt it.

It's not stupidity, it's loyalty to the level of irrationality.

You'll understand the current American right if you assume that they have no attachment to the meaning of their words, and the prime axiom they operate by is: "My team is always right".

They use words as weapons to convince those who can be swayed by them, but they themselves are immune to being swayed by words, and largely indifferent to their literal meaning - only their emotional content.

This is not to deify the left, they have their own problems.

It's horribly depressing, but the only people around to fight the actually evil people are slightly less evil people.

The only reason democrats, as a whole, are a better alternative to republicans is because they chose a different portion of the population to pander to in order to gain power.

It really fucking sucks.

This ruling is only possible and accepted because the current political climate allows for that, true. Things haven't been fine for a while. But this is a sign that they keep getting worse.

I vehemently disagree with the idea that it's a good thing to have "the curtain pulled back". Realpolitik is and has been true forever - but public perception and acceptance matters a huge amount. These popular illusions and ideals are a part of the calculation of realpolitik.

Society should be idealistic, it should expect better - because those expectations shape the actions of politicians. Our society losing its ideals shouldn't be applauded, it should be mourned.

You're right that they could.

Now look at their past legislation. Will they?

You're right, using this ruling in the way people fear it can be used would provoke a civil war.

Now, remind me, was there a large fraction of the US population frothing at the mouth at the idea of a civil war? Perhaps one with a complex the size of Alaska with regards to the previous US civil war? Hmm..

It sincerely feel absolutely insane. Completely beyond any party line bullshit - I'm almost as concerned with what Obama would do with this as what Trump would do with this.

This sort of ruling has no place in a democratic society. It is beyond reprehensible, it is utterly absurd.

The fact that it has been basically accepted by the general public - no riots, no large-scale outcry - sends a dire fucking message.

"May you live in interesting times", indeed.

See here, since someone else asked as well.

Yes! There's so many cool apps on there! I wish the play store was similarly browsable.

That's an extremely cool usecase! Thank you for sharing it, I might steal it!

I use Typewise, with its default hexagonal layout that's supposedly based on the frequency of letters in English. I've gotten alright with it - ~60 WPM on Monkeytype, which is enough that it doesn't feel clunky to use it. And it's quite fun to practice, too!

While I'm pretty sure it's quite possible to write faster with more predictive keyboards, I really appreciate the precision this one allows. Especially since I'm bilingual, which leads to autocorrect and swype getting quite confused sometimes.

I'm still in the market for a better keyboard app. Another interesting one I've tried was MessagEase. It looks really cool and arcane to use, but I found it to be slower in spite of me putting more effort into mastering it.

You can use most modern phones as a spirit level with the right app! It's really useful when doing projects around the house, not having to run around to find a real one. Quite accurate, too!