You a can also buy common university textbooks from India at a fraction of the price they sell for in the US. I say take your deals where you can get them!

This is the answer. The entire cathedral is part of the instrument!

The ideal gas laws don’t deal with gravitation. The earth’s atmosphere behaves the way it does because of earth’s strong gravitational field (relative to the same volume of gas without earth).

It should also be noted that real gases are not ideal gases. Instead of being point particles, real gases can have asymmetric molecular shapes. This can lead to all kinds of funky effects as the particles bounce off one another and acquire both angular momentum and linear momentum.

That’s all this is. That’s all Lemmy is. Just throwing shit out there. None of it matters.

Far more people have seen Michelangelo’s art in person than have Banksy’s and this will always be the case. Michelangelo’s art will remain relevant a hundred thousand years from now, whereas Banksy’s is tied to current events. It’s not even close!

My premise wasn’t that “all art today is about elitism”, it was about the art world. One of Banksy’s works actually went up in value after it was shredded!

Who gives a shit about “Catholic cuntiness”? I was talking about Michelangelo whose patron was the pope but who had no love for the pope himself (and may not have liked the church either). Michelangelo the artist made his work for billions to love and enjoy for all time. Banksy’s shredded painting is funny as a middle finger to the rich guy who bought it but it backfired when the painting went up in value after that.

None of what you said is convincing whatsoever because you cherry picked your examples. How about you try steelmanning Duchamp’s Fountain, Serrano’s Piss Christ, Newman’s Onement VI, or Cattelan’s Comedian? These are all pieces which set the art world on fire with reverence just as they provoked bafflement, bemusement, or exasperation from the public.

You’re also wrong about the Sistine Chapel frescoes. That was the purpose their patron Pope Julius II hoped to achieve. It was defied by Michelangelo (who didn’t like the pope at all), particularly with the anatomical imagery hidden within The Birth of Adam which seems to suggest that God emerged from the human mind. Now his subtle irony may have been lost on almost everyone from his time but it’s not hard to imagine that he hid this Easter egg for future educated citizens to find.

I think Bob Ross is a perfect illustration of the big divorce between the art world and the public that happened during the 20th century.

Regular people love Bob Ross because he created paintings that make people feel good. You can find these types of paintings at affordable art markets all over the place as well as on jigsaw puzzles.

The art world decided to turn its nose up at this kind of popular art and pivot toward controversial, shocking, and lazy (looking) art intended to provoke all kinds of responses (many negative). This continues to drive a perception in the public of an artist community that is increasingly elitist and out of touch.

People forget that it wasn’t always this way. Look at masterpieces like the Sistine Chapel frescoes which were intended to inspire awe and reverence in the public, not scorn. Yes, Michelangelo’s technique and artistry was far in excess of Bob Ross’s, but his art was made to be loved by everyone, not just his wealthy patrons. In that respect, Bob Ross is more like Michelangelo than modern artists.

Impressing girls may be the reason why guys join a gym but impressing their gym buddies is why they stay.

To play world police? Hell no.

Afghanistan was a peaceful country until Soviet influence led to a communist coup that overthrew the government in 1978. Ever since then Afghanistan has had near-endless conflict as different factions (internal and external) have wrestled for control. The Taliban itself, first known as the Mujahideen, was armed and supported by Ronald Reagan’s government.

It’s a textbook example of outsiders ruining a country’s natural course of history and development. You can find the same story in Iran, much of Central and South America, and Africa. Foreign influence creates more conflict and suffering than it prevents.

Because it worked out so fantastically well when the US invaded Afghanistan, right?

This sounds horrible, sorry.

We need borders because people are different with different and incompatible values. Good fences make good neighbours isn’t just a pithy saying, it’s a strong statement about the need for people to respect each other’s boundaries.

Look at the state of the US right now. It’s a horrific clash of incompatible ideologies. It would be much better for everyone involved if the US split up and people on both sides of that divide went their separate ways.

I’m at a point right now where I’m beginning to think the internet was a mistake that has undone so much progress in peace and civility. The internet accelerates divisions and allows extreme ideologies to grow and fester. It’s awful.

Git is not very efficient for handling a lot of binary files. Your best bet would be for hosting fanfic and erotic lit.

Or just ZZ for me since I’m rarely in insert mode (I just press esc quickly after making an edit out of habit).

Banking, messages, email, calendars, discord, messenger, maps, browser, Voyager (Lemmy), YouTube, music, shattered pixel dungeon, Wikipedia, notes, swipe keyboard, duolingo, WhatsApp, desmos, reminders, camera, photos, home automation….

I use my iPhone for a ton of different things. I pretty much never use it to make calls and hate talking on the phone (which is what flip phones are optimized for).

The US has turned into Ferenginar so gradually I didn’t even notice!

I support thrifting 100% though. Buy stuff from real people, stuff that’s good quality that somebody no longer needs, and avoid buying newly manufactured disposable junk.

I don’t. I just use the phone because it works well with my laptop. My previous one was all banged up and scratched, so I wouldn’t really call it a status symbol.

I don’t really care about status though. My friends are a bunch of misfits. If it bothers you that people are using something as a status symbol, perhaps you’re more concerned about status than you realize. I’d love to just advise you to stop caring about that but it’s not that easy. Status seeking is a pretty common, normal behaviour.

Sorry dude, but cars are technology too, not just self driving cars. Every death due to cars is a technology death. You can’t escape the reality of tradeoffs.