Notices by Hypolite Petovan (hypolite@friendica.mrpetovan.com)

“Magic” is just a subversion of expectations, and the adjective says more about the observer and their expectations than it does about the qualified phenomenon.

Claiming that something is magic is also a curiosity stopper which is why I’ve personally never been satisfied with it.

“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you… to dry”

*offers a bath towel*

Seen on #NextDoor :

“Please don’t make this a political debate because it won’t take us anywhere”

This is a curious closing paragraph after vaguely despairing about the results on Election Day evening and asking what can be done to prevent a local drunk driving incident described in great details.

I really don’t understand what this person is expecting with a post like this.

Just saw someone astonished that the raw materials used to make a smartphone are worth $1-$2.

Then they went on a ramble about how billionaires are destroying the planet to line their pockets.

I agree with the sentiment, but there’s absolutely no direct correlation between the initial fact and the exposed opinion.

The industrial processes needed to go from $1-$2 of materials (in bulk!) to the individual electronic devices multi-capable we are familiar with and retailed for $200-$1000 apiece are a little more complex than mixing them up over moderate heat.

Now it’s my turn to be astonished that you can somehow make this logical jump from an irrelevant fact and arrive at another opinion I hold.

Listening to Wintergatan - Paradis I’m reminded how finicky it is to tune a Theremin for a live show because of how everything can affect the magnetic field it’s using.

#music #np #NowPlaying
Paradis - Wintergatan LIVE https://youtu.be/5dyUKDWKxxY

I got into an argument over the Hamas-IDF conflict on LinkedIn of all places, where I was arbitrarily accused of believing Hamas' propaganda about the Al-Ahli Arab hospital explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahli_Arab_Hospital_explosion. I didn't know what they were referring to at the time so I looked into it. The Hamas accused the IDF of bombing this Anglican church-run hospital while the IDF accused Hamas for a failed rocket launch.

The NPR article about this incident https://www.npr.org/2023/10/18/1206795861/heres-the-available-evidence-of-what-happened-at-al-ahli-arab-hospital-in-gaza interviewed a former US military officer who asserted that it is unlikely it was an Israeli bomb because the damage would have been way more extensive. 😰

In the end I am inclined to believe this version as it doesn't really paint the IDF in a particularly good light, even if I now don't believe they bombed this particular hospital. And it is a sore reminder that Palestinians are stuck between Hamas and the IDF.