London-based writer. Often climbing.
- 75 Posts
- 355 Comments
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Any RPGs that take into account when you reload a save? Or that break the 4th wall like this?English
6·2 months agoPrince of Persia on the GameCube (I think? It was a long time ago!) had a mechanism very like this, where you manually rewound time after you died/failed. More Action/Adventure than an RPG, though.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's an album with a completely unique soundEnglish
5·3 months agoHa, I came here to say Bitches Brew before seeing it was in the OP!
I’d add Loveless by My Bloody Valentine: much-imitated, but there’s nothing quite like it.
Also, my early '90s bias is showing here, but In Utero by Nirvana is uniquely brilliant. No one’s melded beauty and ugliness so successfully in any medium.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why?English
2·3 months agoYeah, that’s it: you can get some of that stuff from some fruits, but you’re looking at a lot of avocados!
Bacteria synthesise B12 inside various animals. Even our gut flora synthesise it, but they do it too far down our digestive system to be useful!
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why?English
5·3 months agoYou can’t live on fruit alone because you need vitamin B12, which you can only get from animal products or supplements. Fruit is generally also low in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, all of which you need to live!
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•*Permanently Deleted*English
13·4 months agoAside from your odd definition of capitalism and its outcomes, which other people have addressed, the answer to the headline question is: yes.
Karl Marx, for example, believed that you could not have capitalism without exploitation and that it was therefore an unethical system that should be defeated. He also held that capitalism was inherently contradictory and that it therefore not only should be destroyed, but that it must be destroyed.
However: Marx also believed that capitalism was an enormous improvement on the previously existing social system of feudalism, because it produced far greater wealth through the development of new technology. This is a key difference between Marxism and the earlier ‘utopian socialism’ (which his theories largely replaced), which saw technology itself as an evil.
Marx also welcomed the fact that capitalism destroyed (as he saw it) some earlier forms of oppression (albeit while introducing new ones). Marx’s letter to Abraham Lincoln congratulating him on his re-election discusses the American Revolution and Civil War in precisely these terms.
So, you can enjoy the greater (obviously not ‘infinite’!) abundance of goods that capitalism has produced, you can acknowledge its positive impact on technological development and its material improvements of the lives of millions of people and be not only a leftist but a fully orthodox Marxist… just so long as you also acknowledge that capitalism is also an exploitative and self-destructive force that should, can and must be defeated.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's an uplifting fact that might counter the doom of our current reality?English
1·4 months agoTrue, but it was more restricted in its potential application (because you had to be near a reliable water source). Modern electricity generation, including renewables, doesn’t have that limitation - as the application of coal to steam power demonstrates!
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's an uplifting fact that might counter the doom of our current reality?English
1·4 months agoBut the economics are clear: if renewables stay cheaper than fossil fuels (and there’s no reason to think they won’t), governments will make the switch anyway.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's an uplifting fact that might counter the doom of our current reality?English
671·4 months agoWe’re actually doing pretty well, globally, at shifting to renewables. We’re making more, more quickly and more cheaply than ever before.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What obscure thing you enjoy do you never get to talk about?English
1·5 months agoHa, can’t blame my version, more likely my faulty memory!
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name@lemmy.world•I finally started Strange New Worlds, and it's great but it has one major problem.English
11·5 months agoToo busy listening to the sound of M’Benga’s voice to hear the words he’s saying.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Star Trek Social Club@startrek.website•Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Drops Official First Look Teaser TrailerEnglish
4·7 months agoThey wouldn’t put this tease in the trailer if they weren’t actually bringing Him back, right?
Right?
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Why are most religious people so easy to manipulate? (serious)English
91·7 months agoI often wonder about this with regard to right wing Americans believing such ridiculous things. It’s seem that what Trump supporters ultimately have in common is not one set of beliefs but a shared belief in things that make no sense: that all Democrats are paedophiles, that JFK wasn’t really assassinated, that vaccines don’t work, that climate change isn’t real, that Donald Trump is anything but a foolish, evil corrupt man. What do these views have in common? They’re fundamentally foolish things to believe.
The fact is that once you believe one patently absurd thing - for example, that an interventionist god exists - your thinking gets warped. When you then make this absurdity the centre of your worldview and your identity, your views on everything become warped. After a certain point, they seem to start believing things because they make no sense.
If a person believes God actually answers prayers, something there is no reason whatsoever to believe, they’re primed to believe all kinds of other nonsense. This is exactly why many religious people have stopped believing in that kind of thing, and now take refuge in the idea of prayer as comfort or as asking for ‘strength’ rather than asking for anything specific (note that even this compromise requires them to ignore the plain meaning of the words of, e.g., the Lord’s Prayer). Most people find it uncomfortable to believe in nonsense. For others, it becomes the point.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name@lemmy.world•Someday.....English
16·7 months agoI love Voyager, but of all Treks it’s the hardest to make a move of. Their whole thing was to get home and… they did! You can’t have ‘We need to reunite the old gang to get home from the Delta Quadrant one last time’.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What is a good example of a necessary evil?English
2·7 months agoRight, but we mitigate that harm (good) by depriving people of their freedom (bad). It is necessary to do it, for the exact reasons you suggest - to reduce evil overall.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What is a good example of a necessary evil?English
2·7 months agoI’ve been meaning to read some stuff about how to approach criminal justice if we don’t have free will, but I keep reading other stuff instead. So many books, so little time!
I still think prisoners should be treated well, no matter the crime.
Yes, absolutely. Even for the worst of the worst, their should be rehab attempts, whether it’s anger management, getting them away from gangs - whatever it is they need. I think there are only small numbers of people, if there are any at all, who are really irremediably violent and dangerous, but even for them I’m not exactly happy about putting them away indefinitely.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What is a good example of a necessary evil?English
401·7 months agoPrison seems the obvious one. It’s obviously (to me, that is) not desirable to deprive anyone of their freedom, but for persistently violent people I don’t think there’s a better solution, unfortunately.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's your creative solution to solve the loneliness epidemic?English
2·7 months ago- Sport and art
- low cost and free places to do sport and art
- linked together by public transit and clean, safe places to walk, run or cycle (or scoot or skate or whatever)
- a shorter working week, so people have time to do the above
- a higher minimum wage, so people can afford the (ideally low, if necessary) costs involved
So, e.g., lots of parks with publicly accessible five-a-side football pitches, ping-pong tables, basketball courts, skateparks whatever - that’s your sport. The parks also have bandstands or outdoor theatres, where there’s space for that.
Public libraries with rooms people can hire (or use for free) for book clubs, sewing circles, art classes - that’s your art.
Good thing about the above is that all these ideas already exist in lots of forms, you just pick whatever works best for your current situation.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Who's more influential to you and why? Che Guevara, Ted Kaczynski, Luigi?English
41·7 months agoPeople are already painting his face on walls.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.netto
TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name@lemmy.world•Time for an Honest Repost?English
3·8 months agoIt’s job? The vacuum guitar schema. Rough!






















Right? Glad I’m not the only one! I also want Thok’s workout jacket thing.