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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • It’s supposed to be kind of sort of federal(ish) (federalish enough, in theory, to keep Catalonia and Euskadi happy enough that we won’t want to leave). “States” are called autonomías (autonomies) and have their own government, laws, and institutions, though they still have to obey the Spanish government and most of its laws. It isn’t really working.

    The article is still wrong when it uses “feds”, though, because the cops doing this are the mossos d’esquadra, the Catalan autonomic police, not the “federal(ish)” policía nacional (the Spanish police proper) or guardia civil (despite the name, the military Spanish police, a relic from Franco’s dictatorship, like most of the country and its institutions).


  • It’s supposed to be kind of sort of federal(ish) (federalish enough, in theory, to keep Catalonia and Euskadi happy enough that we won’t want to leave). “States” are called autonomías (autonomies) and have their own government, laws, and institutions, though they still have to obey the Spanish government and most of its laws. It isn’t really working.

    The article is still wrong when it uses “feds”, though, because the cops doing this are the mossos d’esquadra, the Catalan autonomic police, not the “federal(ish)” policía nacional (the Spanish police proper) or guardia civil (despite the name, the military Spanish police, a relic from Franco’s dictatorship, like most of the country and its institutions).



  • if dinosaurs are similar in breathing to humans

    Current living dinosaurs are much more efficient at extracting oxygen from air than practically anything else in the planet.

    Birds’ve got a unidirectional respiratory system that ensures oxygenated air is constantly flowing through their lungs (unlike, for instance, us mammals, who must empty our lungs of spent air before we can fill them again), and a system of air sacs to keep the air constantly flowing.

    While fossil records of the earliest dinosaurs show no evidence of air sacs, later ones do, suggesting that bird-like respiratory systems evolved multiple times in parallel in different branches.

    Sauropods in particular might have had even more complex air sac systems than modern birds, which could explain how they managed to grow so large (i.e., they were full of air, and might have been even more efficient when it comes to breathing, though their long necks might have offset the balance in the opposite direction).

    Dinosaurs would have been perfectly fine with current oxygen levels.







  • I live close to the central area of an ~80,000 population city.

    Looking at Google maps I’ve got about 10 general stores within 300 meters, probably thrice that within 500m, plus plenty of smaller specialised stores.

    300 to 600m seems like a reasonable distance to walk to and back with four to six bags of groceries.

    For smaller more specialised shopping trips one or two kilometres would be fine too.

    Three might be a bit much, though I’ve often walked that to go to the cinema.


  • Atlanta!!!

    Atlatl. Or simply spear-thrower.

    It’s a bit like a fing-longer, but for your whole arm, and therefore more useful.

    Same principle as the sling: they make your arm longer so the “hand” moves faster when you swing it, allowing you to throw stuff at higher and more lethal speeds, and farther.

    We’re still quite lethal even without these tools though, just look at baseball pitchers.