It is a lot like watching two people fight I think. You don’t have to like either of them to enjoy watching them beat each other up, but it isn’t any fun if it is just one person battering the other.

At this point I think at least a modest tamper kit should be in a household the same way a screwdriver was previously.

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross are rather good. It’s a Cthulhu Mythos like world, seen through the lens of espionage, bureaucracy, and computer science. The magic starts off fairly low key, but as the books progress it becomes a bigger and bigger component of the characters. Human sacrifice and the maddening effects of magic are fairly consistent themes.

Eh… Close, but they are also a concentration social power (and fundamentally deferred violence), and rights only really exist in the context of social power. You can try and establish your own personal sovereignty but you can be sure that any state that cares to will test that. Sometimes the most you can do is accept that it is able to imprison you or go down fighting, and if you are committed to pacifism the latter is a harder option.

Their god commanded them to have lots of kids. The idea crops up again and again in fundamentalist abrahamic movements. This world is bad but that doesn’t matter as it is just the doorstep before paradise.

There is always self improvement. Read, exercise, meditate. So much philosophy is public domain, if you have internet access and a device to read ebooks on then you can read most of the famous texts. https://www.gutenberg.org/ is great. If you have access to a local library then use that as well. You can access almost anything with a library card.

So you are at about an A1 and want to get up to around a B1? I don’t like saying impossible but a month is not long at all. If you can already read it you might do better, just focus on the reading and writing skills, get some sample papers if you can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages?wprov=sfla1

You are probably going to want a tutor that offers an intensive class, that can be done in a month, but you are still going to be looking at 50+ hours.

Do you know what level the exam is expecting?

The billy goats gruff alternate ending.

Good on you for checking in with all those people, it must have taken a while.

Lifting the whole world off of fossil fuels is going to be hard, especially if we want to do it quickly. This isn’t however a problem the capitalist and nation-state models are well equipped to solve. It should not be a question of can a given people afford the technology or if someone can turn a profit on it.

We need to do this as a species, for the species. It should be given not as charity, not because wealthy countries owe it to poor ones, but because it is right that everyone should benefit from this.

The difficulty is how to convince the politicians and their masters of this, and I don’t think throwing paint on things is going to be sufficient.

Generally I find the wait times aren’t really longer. The perceived time maybe, as I can ring ahead and then go pick it up, but for me it’s just the usual calculus of what could I alternatively spend the time doing and is it worth the added cost. It’s the same as do I call a tradesperson or fix something myself. Replace a washer on a tap? Sure I will do that. Install a new toilet? Nah, get a plumber.

If money is tight and I’ve got the time then I’m going to cook myself. If both are tight then there’s always ramen.

🔥

Such workers tend to be better treated. There are many companies though that use a lot of what they see as commodity labour, and the staff involved at hlthat level as fungible and fluid.

I’m not saying you are wrong, but its: A) not necessarily a matter of expense, but one motivated at least in part by ideology (can’t let the union win) And B) mainly about perceptions. If people believe their job and possibly future employment opportunities are at risk, they are more likely to break. Scabs aren’t necessarily unskilled, they are just people who have decided the cash is more important than solidarity.

In an ideal world employers would realise a content, healthy, and properly compensated employee is better for the business and the economy in general. In reality they are going to keep cutting corners until the whole thing falls apart because line goes up.

Defiance of power is the only crime the state cares about.

Hasn’t ever been a problem before. They can hire scabs, and some people won’t have the fortidude, you don’t need to convince everyone to cross the picket line to break a strike.

I’m not saying that illegal strikes can’t work, in fact I think the correct response to making strikes illegal is to strike illegally. It does however require people to be much more firmly committed to the cause.

Off the top of my head, if a strike is declared illegal then the workers don’t get the usual protections, so the employer is free to retaliate as they see fit (generally dismissal). The state doesn’t have to actually do anything.

You might get some milage out of looking at the camping end of the market. You can get double walled mugs without lids (or with simple ones) and you are still drastically cutting heat loss even if it isn’t sealed.

You could also get a more traditional flask, just fill it up then pour out into a smaller cup as you need it. You should still be able to get ones with glass inner walls.

A plastic ice scraper will help get the bulk off, then you can get a variety of solvents for removing any residue. If it is metal then it should be fine with most solvents but check the instructions and do a test patch somewhere discreet to be sure.

The specifics can be argued, (and have been, and will be). The Buddha said that evil action is rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion. He said he understood this when he saw the true nature of reality.

Kant said “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” And says this is evident if you reason through things.

Moses had a great big list of rules that he said the creator of the universe told to him.

Governments establish laws based on the interests of those in power, they say to obey the law is right and to disobey is wrong and they will use violence to punish those that disobey.

These are just some examples, there are loads more including utilitarianism, virtue ethics, various other religions and customary systems.