I recently read through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, new book in the series just came out so I plan on reading that one next. It's a comedy/adventure sci-fi and fantasy. It has elements of class oppression and intergalactic revolution. It's not strictly Marxist, but it's not horribly lib either. It's a fun story and it's not just a power fantasy as most stories in the "Dungeon" genre tend to be (e.g. solo leveling).

I also read through the Convergence series, which is a fantasy story about the only wizard in modern society who is trying to stop a fantasy world from colliding with the modern world. It's pretty good, the comedy is quite good, and has hilarious references to marxism throughout. However, there is one section where they completely misrepresent communism which was unfortunate, but it is not really relevant to the overall story, so if you ignore that section it is an overall fun story.

next on my list is probably left hand of darkness or something from the discworld series.

I guess it depends on perspective. A bus, in simplest terms, shortens a trip. People pay to take a bus for 10 minutes to save an hour walking. It seems this escalator fits a similar purpose in the transit system of the district. Save an hour climbing stairs by taking a 20 minute escalator ride. Not identical, but similar.

It is probably nearly free to run but the per rider upfront cost is probably much higher (construction costs, relatively low ridership). It's also a fairly unique solution, which means it does not benefit as much from standardization, though it seems most of the parts are standardized. Both of the systems would have operating labour costs in addition to the electrical costs (maintenance, IT support, financial etc.). I would love to see a full lifecycle cost breakdown comparison.

It could very well turn out that the escalator is way overpriced per ride, I just don't have the data to say with certainty. I just think that its not unreasonable when compared against other forms of public transit.

edit: I decided to do some napkin math based on the data at the following source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-longest-outdoor-escalator-just-opened-in-china-riding-the-3000-foot-long-system-to-the-top-takes-more-than-20-minutes-180988468/

• $23 million construction cost
• 9000 daily ridership
• $0.5 per ride (3 yuan)

if we assume zero O&M costs, loans, or anything else, the breakeven for the infrastructure is about 14 years.

for a comparison to an electric bus, including the cost of the driver and the cost of electricity, but ignoring distributed O&M Costs, (e.g. depots, maintenance yards, roads, etc.) the breakeven for the equipment is about 2 years.

170,000 dollar upfront cost, 0.3 dollar per ride (2 yuan), 1000 riders per bus per day, 8900 yuan driver salary, 150kWh per day, 0.5 yuan per kWh.

This assumes the busiest traffic routes, with lower ridership routes having much longer break-even points. A quick search indicates 5-7 years as the average break even point.

In the city I'm in, buses are about 1.8 yuan, and the subway is usually 2-4 yuan (depending on trip length). So if you think of it as the equivalent of a bus, then it's a bit pricy, but not overly so.

I had mentioned my passing desire to go on tour to the DPRK (since it's not very far from where I am now). He had said that if given the choice he would rather be shot than visit North Korea. My response was "well that's certainly a choice" hoping he would get how rediculous he sounded. Luckily my other friend pointed out that what he said was really dumb. I then had to tell them that they literally know nothing about North Korea and that they shouldn't blindly fall for propoganda. The conversation moved on after that, but it was an odd thing to hear someone say.

The concept of geeks often felt like it was tied up with aspects of oppression. The concept of simulated ethnicity is an interesting perspective on it. This ties in with the liberal mentality that your "class" is tied up in the aspects of culture that you subscribe to and surround yourself with (e.g. the tv shows you consume and the activities you participate in define your position in the class hierarchy). It's a false front on reality. Geeks are outcasts socially, but they still reify capitalist relations in their perceived superiority to non-geeks. Framing this as simulated ethnicity calls it out as being artificial and an attempt to benefit from the racial stereotypes without taking on the same negatives those stereotypes come with. It shows the desire to gain the perceived benefits of oppression without the actual consequences of oppression.

Apparently this memorial was originally supposed to be unveiled in 2023, but after the Canadian government invited a Nazi into their parliament for Zelenski, they delayed it's unveiling.

Also, they have had the memorial up for nearly a year with no names on it, and more than half the 550 names they suggested were directly affiliated with Nazis. Now they are considering art to symbolize things instead of actual names... I wonder if the people doing this ever realize that maybe they are barking up the wrong tree.

I appreciate the line that states most of their business is not affected because Europe and the middle east still buy a lot of stuff. America realizing they don't matter anymore is fun to watch.

This is definitely good news. It's too bad they didn't go as far as Cuba on their most recent rewrite of family law, but I'm glad things are moving in the right direction.

I hope Didi gains custody of her son soon enough, that will also be a win when it happens.

I really dislike ads, so usually I have them blocked, but not all my devices have it done yet. Usually it's just capital trying to get me to buy things so I just scroll past, but just over the weekend it was scary how quickly ads relating to Iran's retaliatiatory action started popping up with the obvious slant you would expect in the west. There seems to be a concerted effort to start beating war drums... This is not including the horrific ads I've seen coming from Zionists over the last half year with blatantly genocidal language. I even reported those ads and nothing came of it of course.

I guess to sum up: ads can and are used as political tools to shape ideology. Yet another reason to get everyone you know on an ad blocker.

So 6 years to project start. Then just a few more years for completion. All in we are looking to a decade out for project completion +/- a few years.

Meanwhile, in Canada they can't even get a timeline or funding for a single line on the most obvious corridor. And the second most obvious corridor has no timelines, and is only a study of feasibility at this time.

The Soviet Union saved one of my Great Uncles from a concentration camp. Not quite the same, but I appreciate them none the less.

The image shows data from April.

In may Germany entered Recession: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-enters-recession-2023-05-25/

While the G7/EU other countries may have mostly technically avoided recession, they have only done so barely so far.