Achilleas gioypi @gioypi@qoto.org

# 12 Months a Slave

### Mandatory military service is nothing less than abuse. Psychological and physical.

In Greece, one of the countries that still hold mandatory conscription for all male citizens, the “service” is now being extended from 9 to 12 months. Despite things getting better since a few decades ago, when folks would serve for two years and nobody would care for any health issues, the system is still rotten. From young adults that just finished school to scientists that work in research, everybody has to pause their lives at some point, in order to be being yelled at by condescending buffoons in the name of freedom. For 12 months. How are you protecting your country’s freedom, by deserting your own? Are not countries made of people? Is a country free when its people are not?

A soldier is never free, that I can guarantee. Not even in times of peace. A soldier must not decide for himself when to talk, where to place his hands, how to sit down, whether to turn his head, when to drink water. Yet, his “superiors” will often refer pompously to him as *a man*, or a person that will become *a man* through military training. *A man* that needs permission to go to the toilet. The irony.

At least, soldiers are getting paid. In Greece, their monthly salary is ~8.60€. That is around 30 cents per day and they must be available 24/7. Not to mention the religious and nationalistic propaganda that comes with the army.

Obviously the military needs huge reforms, since we are cursed to maintain it. To my mind, the abolition of enforced conscription is the first logical step in a civilized society. The level of vain abuse one must endure in the army would not be accepted anywhere in the real world. Still, the public seems to tolerate it, even without real ways for the soldiers to defend themselves.

#Greece #army

[[Original image](https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%95%CF%8D%CE%B6%CF%89%CE%BD%CE%B5%CF%82#/media/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:Evzone_Parliament_Greece_1.JPG) by Everlind, [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), edited by me, it reads “This is not tradition, it’s abuse”]

It’s the 3rd day without tap water and with constant blackouts. The snow is melting now, but they have no idea when the network will be restored. Probably not today, either.

This is neither fun, nor how I imagined Europe of the 2020s…

#Greece

Ας μην εθελοτυφλούμε, δεν είμαστε πολιτισμένη χώρα...

#Greece

@freemo Yeah, that would make sense. I have read about USB cables with no proper grounding being sold online, though (can't recall the source).

@freemo Looks pretty!
I wish there was a universally applied standard for USB grounding...

The _Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons_ (TPNW), the first global treaty to ban #nuclear weapons, has come into force! ✌️ ☮️

In low-level #hardware, the binary system means that anything below _x_ Volts will be considered a '0' digit and anything above will be '1'.

Yeah, it can become much more complex, but that is the concept of **binary** inside a processor (and PCM signals too, voltage not being the necessary value to measure).

What if we could have MORE than 2 states, occurring from our measurement? Turns out we can?!
In PAM4 ([Pulse-amplitude modulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-amplitude_modulation)) we have 4 states. You can theoretically define PAM16, if you are not excited yet. The more states you divide your voltage spectrum into, the harder to maintain accuracy and so errors happen. It makes sense, since you are becoming "less binary" and "more analogue"...

Find a way to compensate for the errors in PAM4 and enjoy double the speed of PAM2 (or NRZ for _Non-return-to-zero_).

PCI-e 6.0 will be PAM4. PAM4 is also used in GDDR6X memory (RTX 3080 and 3090) and some high-speed Ethernet standards.

#tech

[Image from [Linus Tech Tips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcrkZigYXak)]

@hansw @freemo @meneer I once tried Jami for Windows but it was unusably buggy. No idea if it's good enough for Linux.

If a film contains product placement, then it should be available for free.

@trinsec Welcome! I want to believe we are more than chill for these subjects and even more random stuff :)

### The Ogoni 9

In 1995, 9 activists were murdered in Nigeria by the military, for protesting against the impacts of Shell's oil production.

There were arrests, followed by torture. For example, Baribor Bera, was forced to swallow his teeth after being beaten. This is not a movie. This really happened.

Shell knew and enabled the executions.

No one was ever held responsible.

[~Full report by Amnesty International~](https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AFR4466042017ENGLISH.pdf?link_id=31&can_id=9fa45eaf1cbfc6b4e65285352e9cd062&source=email-uk-newsletter-19-guess-whos-back&email_referrer=email_1012343&email_subject=uk-newsletter-19-biodiversity-is-not-cute)

#Ogoni9 #Shell #Nigeria #climatechange

_Self-discipline_ is a virtue.
_Discipline_ is a technique to control people.

@hansw Probably, but I was referring mainly to the flaws in their election system, like @design_RG said.

It seems that a vast portion of the people believe they have a democracy worth praising, while in fact the political freedoms in the US are below average. The artificial division between only two major sides (with little differences in practice?) is common worldwide, unfortunately. Still, the way candidates are nominated in the US is absurd by European standards. There is also the vote inequality because voters from each state have different impact on the national results.