• 1 Post
  • 91 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: October 8th, 2023
  • ijon_the_human@lemmy.worldtoWorld News@lemmy.world•Rubio condemns German intelligence’s decision to classify far-right party AfD as extremistEnglish
    26·
    2 months ago

    I agree, it’s not a fix. However it’s also not just “calling them extremist”. It’s an official classification not just something haphazardly mentioned in a speech.

    The move, announced Friday by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), means that the AfD is no longer merely under suspicion. The agency says it now has definitive evidence that the party works against Germany’s democratic system.

    A 1,000-page internal report, according to German public broadcaster ARD, underpins the decision, citing violations of core constitutional principles such as human dignity and the rule of law.

    The new classification doesn’t ban the party, but it allows German authorities to intensify surveillance, including the use of undercover informants and monitoring communications, under judicial oversight.

    Politico

  • ijon_the_human@lemmy.worldto[Locked] YUROP@lemm.ee•Come on do something
    13·
    2 months ago

    I recognise you’re just expressing frustration towards current affairs – a frustration I often share, but:

    Decisions require a mandate and the reason the EU has problems making decisions about some things is that it wasn’t designed to address them in the first place.

    It’s simply a slightly over-grown trading union with occasional federalist aspirations.

    Responding to tariffs - fast and coordinated.

    Responding to external military threats - scattered and complicated.

    Tap for spoiler

    As a sidenote: According to John Bolton Trump, at least during his first term, was completely oblivious to how the European Union worked and was somehow also under the impression that Juncker, then president of the European Commission, got to decide the NATO budget. Crazy, right?

    That’s why the EU’s response to defense was based on financial instruments.

    To become a “superpower” and/or make quick decisions regarding e.g. military threats, it would need to actually become a state-like entity and begin building several bureaucratic arms it currently lacks which doesn’t usually happen overnight. Not to mention establishing actual policies.

    Before we get to that stage though, a consensus between member states needs to be formed and all manner of legal documents drafted. Centralising power means less independence for member states which is usually a hard sell. It would likely also require member states to alter their constitutions which could be an incredibly slow process even without resistance from all the respective governments. Not to mention the fact that a popular vote in all member states might be a good idea democracy-wise.

    I’m not saying necessarily it’s something we shouldn’t pursue and hey, under extraordinary circumstances even bureaucracy can move quickly but it is a huge deal and moving quickly could also mean skirting around established democratic principles. (Actually iirc European bureaucracy is generally quite efficient as is –contrary to popular belief)

    I guess I wrote this in the hopes of fighting disillusionment even though it’s not the core message here. We’ll do what we have to and I’m positive we’ll get to wherever we need to be in order to survive and thrive in this century. It will require patience, nerve and active participation from all of us though.

    Last thing I want us to become is like the folks over in the States claiming it’s all already over. (A minority, I hope)

    Sorry for the wall of text, I guess I had some stuff pent up.

  • ijon_the_human@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•Choose a number, 1-5!
    2·
    2 months ago

    EDIT:

    The University of Edinburgh has a publically available visual dataset of 59 forks:

    https://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/UTENSILS/DINNER_FORK/dinner_fork.xml

    I guess one way to approach this would be to use something like Skyrim’s character generator. Not sure how challenging it would be to put together something like that but it’d be a laugh.

    Your suggestion about a 3d model with adjustable parameters is something I could do in Grasshopper. There is the problem of defining the parameters though. Not impossible by any means but determining which features are the most critical and which could be excluded could end up being surprisingly difficult.

    As far as copyright is concerned I don’t think we’d encounter problems when using product photos from Ikea and the like. But your right about the combination part. Not only do the variations need to exist, we’d also need comparable photos of relatively high quality.

    If we were to actually do this though, I think it would be best to start simple, do a sort of goldilocks prototype and see how it goes from there. For instance splitting ten (maybe even less) of the most popular forks into three parts and poll people on those (either separately or as combinations). If the number of initial fork designs is not too high, I could even model each of those separately to avoid copyright issues. Then again this works better for determining the preferred shapes and not as well for preferred scale – e.g. how long the tines are compared to the handle etc. I guess there would need to be two stages, shape and proportions. The proportions would be quite simple though and the initial images could just be scaled and skewed to achieve the desired look.

    Another idea would be to go through the features one by one, having a poll at each stage. Every time the result is split, we could “fork” the design into multiple ones. This would require a whole lot of orchestration though and I have a gut feeling this wouldn’t work very well in practise. This is also based on the assumptions that there is only one perfect design for each respondent and that the preference for features is not interdependent.

    Then again we could utilise gen AI to turn simple proportional sketches / illustrations (modifiable or user drawn) to more realistic images which maybe users could then rate.___

  • ijon_the_human@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•Choose a number, 1-5!
    2·
    2 months ago

    I have a couple of ideas but I don’t know which would be the easiest.

    We could analyse and break down forks to their design features and then let people mix and match. This would take a lot of time though.

    Alternatively we could scrape a bunch of fork images and build a large dataset. Then show two at a time to users and let them pick their preferred one repeatedly until we know the preference hieararchy for that user. Then compare users and divide them into demographics.

    I guess it would also be possible to have a visual model and some edit options like make different parts longer / thicker. I feel this is unnecessarily complicated.

    Another idea would be to break the fork into two or three parts. Not perfect but faster than exploring all design features. Tines, body, end for instance and let people either mix and match or do some for of a/b testing.

    My expertise is in design so I can help with those aspects but coding I unfortunately cannot do. Would be a really fun project designwise too…

  • ijon_the_human@lemmy.worldtoBuyFromEU@feddit.org•durable hiking/working pantsEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    If you are looking for something similar to Fjällräven but want to watch your wallet you could look into Revolution Race.

    I was a bit skeptical because they’ve had very prominent social media campaigns and they seem to have an endless amount of product variations. (Things I don’t equate to reliable businesses.) However I’ve recently seen people use them not only for hiking but also quite a lot for work – gardening (not the hobby kind), landscaping etc.

    If anyone has personal experiences with them I’d gladly hear your take!

OSZAR »