Now at @aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au @ ajsadauskas @social.vivaldi.net

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@atomicpoet @movies Now we fast forward to 1952, at the height of the Cold War.

Stalin is still running the Soviet Union, and there's an anti-Soviet-occupation insurgency in Lithuania: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian/_partisans

Castle Lechter in the Lithuanian Alps has finally been seized by the Commies and turned into an orphanage.

(As an aside, my elderly mum still jokes about "that movie with the castle in the Lithuanian alps" 20 years later.)

Young Hannibal's uncle is a descendant of Lithuanian aristocracy living in France.

He somehow gets permission from the Stalinist Russian authorities to visit his family's ancestral castle in occupied Lithuania.

This French citizen somehow managed to rescue/adopt a kid from Soviet-occupied Lithuania. And the Russians were cool with it?

What gets glossed over is the potentially problematic detail of when Uncle Lechter moved to France?

More precisely: Was it after the end of World War 2, or before?

If it's before: The Germans that occupied France weren't exactly keen on interracial marriages at that time, even if it involved people from their AXIS partner. There's implications.

That's before the action.

Yes, I'm overanalysing an awful film.

But if you set a film in a random country without basic research, you end up with "Belonging to imported dairy products" as a villain.

3/3

@atomicpoet @movies Given all the non-Lithuanian names, I'm guessing it's probably one of the latter two?

In which case, it was good on Antanas Smetona to let them hold on to the castle during the First Lithuanian republic (1918–1939): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas/_Smetona

And when the Soviets invaded the first time from 1939 to 1941 after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it was nice that they let them keep the castle. Especially given 130,000 people from the Baltic states were forcibly deported in that time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet/_occupation/_of/_the/_Baltic/states/(1940)

And the Lechters somehow held on to the castle through the German Nazi occupation (1941–1944) as well.

Now, let's run through the names of the Lithuanian Nazis. Vladis Grutas, Petras Kolnas are both plausible (-is! -as! Not hard!).

Then Enrikas (okay) Dortlich. Dortlich I presume had a dad from Serbia or Croatia?

Then there's Zigmas (okay) Milko. The charitable explanation here is his dad is Russian.

Because in Lithuanian, the -o suffix denotes a noun in the possessive/genitive case. Roughly equivalent to -'s in English.

For example, Kauno apskritis translates to Kaunas' county.

Also, the word for milk in Lithuanian is pienas. But "milk" gets used sometimes as a loanword with imported dairy products.

So there's a villain named Ziggy Foreign-milk's

Or Ziggy Owned-by-a-foreign-milk.

2/3

@atomicpoet @movies I saw this one when it first came out in cinemas.

I remember it being just hilariously bad.

First, Castle Lechter is depicted as being a castle atop a mountain.

Yeah, the filmmakers have clearly never visited Lithuania.

It's a really flat country. The highest "mountain" is just 293.84 metres tall, and just outside Vilnius: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auk%C5%A1tojas/_Hill

That also ain't a Lithuanian-style castle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trakai/_Island/_Castle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaunas/_Castle

Next problem: The name Hannibal.

The letters "f" and "h" are not native to Lithuanian, and only appear in loanwords.

Also, it doesn't end in a masculine-form noun suffix such as -as, -ius, or -is.

So something like Anibalas would be nontraditional but at least Lithuanian-sounding. Hannibal is pretty much by definition a loanword.

Also, Lechter. The Lithuanian soft ch (like "cheese") is written as č. Hard ch is written as a k. And again, needs a masculine-form noun suffix.

So maybe Lečturis or Lukturas, not Lechter.

(For that matter, Misha sounds Russian. Robert, as in Robert Lechter, sounds English—it should be Robertas.)

Back to that castle. Are these guys nobility from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1180s–1569), the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795), or the czarist Russian occupation (1795–1918)?

1/3

@jrs100000 You'll note I said "princes and princesses of the top 10%". As in top 10% of households by income.

Those Millennials are set.

The middle class Millennials are now starting to inherit property.

And the working class Millennials? Screwed.

@scrubbles Let me correct this one for them:

Millennials — long mocked for being locked out of the housing market and postponing major life decisions due to their financial position — are finally starting to inherit wealth.

Well, as long as they're middle class.

Many princes and princesses of the top 10% already had parents willing to be guarantors on mortgages, or just outright give precious a trust fund.

And working class millennials are already screwed, and will be for the rest of their lives.

But for 40-something middle-class Millennials, their 70-something Boomer parents kicking the bucket is providing an unexpected financial windfall.

@basyl @degoogle From the FAQ:

"AsteroidOS is an open source Linux distribution that runs on many different smartwatches. It uses Qt and QML to provide the graphical interface.

"A phone is not required to use AsteroidOS, but several convenient functions are available when an AsteroidOS watch is paired with one of the synchronization clients listed in the documentation. A synchronization client is generically what we call software that runs on a phone or computer that knows how to talk via Bluetooth to an AsteroidOS device.

"Android users can use "AsteroidOSSync" which is available for download on F-Droid. Or try Gadgetbridge from F-Droid with initial AsteroidOS support. Mind that on Android 13 and later devices, you will need to manually enable "restricted notification access". The option is hidden behind the three dot menu in app-info.

"AsteroidOS does not collect any tracking data and you don't need to use or establish any accounts to use it. Nothing on the default installation is able to connect to the internet. While it is possible to connect an AsteroidOS watch to the internet this must be explicitly done by the user."

More details here: https://wiki.asteroidos.org/index.php/FrequentlyAskedQuestions(FAQ)

@popheads @sheeds I think I can fairly safely assume everyone in Australia knows this song already.

For anyone overseas who hasn't heard it before, or anyone who wants to see the original clip, here you go 👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfWrXc5eN8g

@popheads And ahead of the release of her new album on 14 February, Alessia has released a new track titled isn't it obvious.

(This is her 2nd single off her forthcoming album.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmLnKnNh2ns

@Showroom7561 I take it you're talking about Doug Ford?

I don't follow Canadian politics closely, but from what I've read, he sounds like a nasty piece of work (and that whole family too, for that matter).

So I can certainly understand your pessimism!

Just remember there's always a long game in politics.

Keep advocating, keep organising, keep building connections, alternative institutions, and counterweights. Ford's reign will end.

@Showroom7561 There is no functional difference between powering your lights and your TV with grid renewables and storage electricity vs grid fossil fuel electricity.

Literally the exact same activities (turning on lights, using appliances) go from having a massive carbon impact to a negligible one, depending on if there's renewables or fossil fuels powering the grid.

I don't begrudge anyone who makes individual choices to lighten their environmental impact.

But understand that the core of the issue is systemic. It's bad Infrastructure and bad public policy.

The solution to bad public policy is good public policy.

The solution to bad Infrastructure is good Infrastructure.

And if our political leaders aren't doing the job, then they need to be held to account, and replaced.

3/3

@Showroom7561 They know even if 70% of the population benevolently made compromises for the greater good, there's still a market for their toxic products.

And they know that if 51% of the public vote for candidates that implement good public policy — that invest in grid scale renewables and storage, that allow higher density mixed use zoning near public transport, that invest in rail and public transport, that implement taxes that capture fossil fuel pollution externalities rather than subsidise them — they're screwed.

At the grassroots level, building movements and organisations, raising funds, getting good candidates preselected and then elected is going to have far greater impact than individual consumer choices.

If the local council doesn't understand induced demand and chooses to induce more traffic with more lanes rather than build protected bike lanes, then they are not competent for public office.

They need to go.

If the state government wastes taxpayer money building more roads that induce more traffic rather than on improving bus and train services, they need to go.

And here's the kicker. Once the Infrastructure is in place, there is no sacrifice.

People choose to catch the modern automated underground Metro that runs every 4 minutes because it's quicker than being stuck in traffic.

2/3

@Showroom7561 Again, with all due respect, climate change is fundamentally a systemic and structural problem.

It's a collective problem.

The air pollution, hurricanes, droughts, floods, and heatwaves don't just affect the people who burn fossil fuels. Or the people who profit off fossil fuels. Or the people who wastefully consume products with embodied carbon.

The rising floodwaters will not neatly flow around the home of Vicky the vegan while completely submerging SUV Steve's house.

In economic terms, the hurricanes, bushfires, floods, droughts, and heatwaves are a massive externalised cost.

Collective problems need collective solutions. Systemic problems need systemic solutions.

I have nothing against sustainable individual choices.

But.

Individual consumer choices in the free market ain't gonna fix this one. There needs to be policy change and infrastructure investment and public policy at the level of government.

Bad public policy — State investments in motorways and coal power plants, subsidies on fuel, helped create this mess.

The answer to bad public policy isn't individual action. It's good public policy.

There's a reason the likes of BP have spent billions promoting individual consumer responses in the free market and carbon footprints.

(1/3)

@Showroom7561 I respectfully disagree.

If the infrastructure is in place, then the sustainable option becomes the default easiest option, no personal choice or sacrifice needed.

For example: If your local grid is powered by renewables + storage, then no personal choice or sacrifice is needed. It's the default that comes out of the socket.

It's only if the grid is powered by gas and coal that personal choice and sacrifices (saving up for solar panels, using less electricity) are needed.

Another example: If you live within walking distance of a modern metro or a frequent bus with dedicated lanes, where services run more than once every 10 mins, then no personal choice or sacrifice is needed. It's the default option because it's often faster than getting stuck in traffic and finding parking.

It's only where services run once every 15 minutes or less that sacrifice is needed.

Same goes for cycling when there's a good city-wide network of protected bike lanes vs mixed traffic.

Or travelling domestically by train when there's high speed rail vs no or slow, infrequent rail.

Or walking to the shops when they're within walking distance of your house vs 30 mins walk away with no good footpaths.

Have the right Infrastructure in place, anf no sacrifice is needed.

@vk6flab In this case, the answers it's serving up are the statistically most probable sequence of words based on what climate scientists, energy experts, architects, urban planners, meteorologists, geologists, physicists, engineers, chemists, and other researchers have been saying for decades.

I'm personally pessimistic about whether the same words regurgitated by Gemini or ChatGPT will make a difference.

Hopefully it does.

Off topic: 73's, love the callsign 😁

@pomCountyIrregs @music "Accidentally".

Just out of curiousity, has PCI ever been signed to a record label?

Do you see much in the way of royalties from the likes of Spotify or YouTube?

And do artists get much of a cut through Bandcamp?

@pomCountyIrregs @music Great explanation ☺️

And from the sounds of it, UMG has now just allegedly turned around and said: 'Whoopsies! Software bug! Trevor from IT forgot to install that last floppy disk!

'Sorry guys, we hadn't been tallying your YouTube/Spotify/whatever streams these past 20-odd years! Genuine mistake!'