NaibofTabr

In which case anyone who wants to can read the message traffic and make changes to it before passing it on to the receiver.

No, you can’t conduct business this way.

No one can bank online without reliable encryption. No one can transact business online without reliable encryption.

throwing a wrench into the US industry right now is a pretty good deal.

This is the part I don’t really get - they’ve spent decades working to control these resources, and I can’t really see what benefit they get from this that offsets that time and effort.

Manipulating the flow and the prices makes sense. Cutting it off entirely just to participate in a dick-measuring contest with the US really doesn’t make any sense. Nations are already looking at moving their supply chains especially for electronics after all the COVID disruptions. Encouraging those nations to go looking elsewhere for the entire supply chain just loses you business and influence, no matter how much short-term cost you inflict.

This is kind of interesting… China has been working on monopolizing sources of raw materials for awhile now, and putting them on the market cheap so that they become the de facto supplier, making it difficult or impossible for any other sources to be developed.

But… there are other sources of things like lithium and cobalt, it’s just been cheaper to buy it from China so everyone does.

Cutting off the supply will cause some slow-downs and a bit of chaos in the short term but what will happen is local sources will suddenly become worth developing. What this does is effectively burn a big piece of China’s economic power… I wonder what they’re getting out of it right now? The impact won’t last very long.

Darths and Droids - Star Wars rewritten as a TTRPG campaign, started in 2007, still regularly updating, fantastic (ab)use of the source material

Also check out Dr. McNinja. It ended years ago but the entire series can be downloaded from archive.org (legally).

The spear in the Other’s heart
is the spear in your own:
you are he.

There is no other wisdom,
and no other hope for us
but that we grow wise.

-attributed to Surak

as written by Diane Duane in Spock’s World

Empathy is not some mere emotion that you feel - a fleeting reaction to some external sensation. Empathy is an intentional shifting of perspective, where you experience another’s circumstances as if they were your own.

This is a skill, meaning that it is something which you learn through practice, and that you do on purpose, until the doing of it becomes instinctive and no longer requires intent.

To say “I do not feel empathy” is to give yourself an excuse not to practice. This is a cop-out, used by weak people. Do not wait to “feel” it before you practice. Always remember you do not practice only for the sake of other people, but for the sake of your own growth and edification.

The secret ingredient is poverty wages.

Cowboy Bebop