broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 7hPossibly, in a very sunny or rainy space, that is also crowded enough to force people to use it. Like that Thai train line with market stalls along it, but covered. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026That's exactly how my shed ended up full of joinery tools and lengths of hardwoods 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Careful, mending old houses is addictive :) 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Only just over a decade until the centennial. We had some great WWI stuff in 2014-2018. Looking forward to what stories get told on WWII, hopefully we get some China content. 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The same issue exists in the rest of the 5 eyes. Like, Bibi *maybe* cares what Trump thinks (not congress tho, it seems). He doesn't care what any AU pols say, especially a minor party. Big "old man shouts at clouds" energy. 030
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Yeah, and also in OP. There are a lot of parallels. That doesn't mean its good. 19th C nationalism was quite bad for a lot of individual people, and a lot of minority cultures. But Israel isn't, like, ontological evil. They're kinda normal (although also late to the party). 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Italy unified through war. They only stopped unifying when they lost some wars, thereby losing their Dalmatian territories, and there was population exchange. Serbia is really similar. So is Germany, really. 110
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026That's why Gen Ed is general. Partly because it helps if the lawyers and teachers know how beams work. But partly because there's some kid who never realised that "ship hull designer" or "materials lab research" are things people get paid to do. And we owe them the chance to shine. 7/7 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026But that progress comes by exposing people to STEM fields, so they can see if they like it and might be good at it. Yes, in the process, they might learn a bit about how machines or the built environment works. But they also learn about themselves. 6/ 101
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026"Americans don't need engineering" - replace Americans with some subset of Americans. "Catholic women don't need engineering" sounds horrible, right? These are the sort of gender & cultural barriers STEM fields have been working to break down for decades. And there has been significant progress 5/ 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Gen ed / broadening courses help young people to figure out what they might want to do in life. Something they might love, and be good at, but never got exposed to. This includes arts. Humanities. And yes, STEM fields. 4/ 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026But the other thing is that education is a great tool of social mobility - if people have access. "We need history for our Republic to run, we don't need engineering" is basically "all Americans (or whatever country) need history, but they don't all need STEM" 3/ 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Let a thousand flowers bloom. We need engineers, doctors, artists, historians, everything. We also need to respect each other. Maybe learning a bit about what other folks do, and how they do it, will help that. 2/ 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026So, this is getting the discourse today. A lot of it is justifications why engineering (or history, etc) matters. And yeah, they do. Most people can think of reasons why society needs *their own* field. Maybe less obvious for someone else's field. But really, we need them all. 1/ 120
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Its more than just that. And I don't mean to diminish the humanities attacks, because they're real. But. Uni in general has become job training, instead of "broad & deep learning makes you a better person." Stem fields have also suffered in this regard. 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I dunno. Part of my engineering training was risk analysis. Part of it was making decisions on data & evidence, and how to handle uncertainty. These would have been great skills for the general public to have, in the past 10 - 12 or so years. 020
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Maybe, in actual rowing circles -- which I'm not part of. I've confidence they'll be able to run a safe event. There is a rowing club in Rocky. And, its sorta the southern end of croc country. If they held the comp on Proserpine River I'd expect some boats to get chomped. 011
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 18/09/2026It's been in local discussions. There are some big crocs in the Fitzroy. Difficulty is if you go farther south, there's fewer crocs but more bull sharks. 110
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Also, the idea is US is evil because they're *good* at projecting power? Like, lots of countries & people want to change stuff overseas (cough Gaza cough) but most of them can't do it, doesn't change the desire 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 17/09/2026If I *don't* buy groceries, I'm richer by $100. That's the logic. 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 16/09/2026One wonders what that welded-on 40% eats for breakfast? Crayons? 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 16/09/2026"People who share my politics would be great running my business" -- something leftish people have spent decades learning is wrong Still love the hippie greenie Cafe of my home town during my childhood. Amazing food, best lunch in town, always full, somehow also always broke. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 13/09/2026No he's literally saying that sending a young Republican to college makes them a centrist, and sending a young Democrat to college makes them a commie. I.e. college moves everyone leftward. It's just the old "pinko college sandal wearing freaks" trope, but dressed up to sound clever. 060
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Spout off, leftishly, about GOP "debt and deficit disaster." Jump on the attacks for forever wars and new ballrooms. Otherwise people squeezed by high tax, inflation, or reduced services, will cast about for someone to blame - immigrants, Israel, communists, etc. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Meloni runs Italy. XA had Boule seats for years. Fascist parties gained power all over Europe off the back of austerity, and centrists moved right. The only hope is to channel the sack-of-taters voters' desire to blame someone, onto the correct place: incompetent "conservative" politicians 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026His book talked about how the struggles of poor rust belt whites were similar to poor rust belt blacks. Which, yeah, probably; poverty is poverty. But it's a pernicious sort of racism that uses black people as the archetype of poverty and struggle. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026So, Bombing to Win, with jihad characteristics? 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Yep. Mutilation was supposed to be a more moral alternative to killing them. They could still pray, do good deeds, etc. Forced tonsure was a further evolution. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Byzantine solutions for "crumbling empire run by crazy people" problems 111
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Exile to a remote monastery is appealing. Be weird about women, but with no women around. Live the crunchiest of lifestyles. 100
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Going to BM to see actual British history -- and/or travelling exhibits that eventually go back to where they're from -- seems very ethical 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026It depends. The immediate results in, say 100 years post conquest, a lot of that was really really bad. Later on there are too many contingencies. But Normans were basically not good for pretty much anywhere they went in Europe. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026"I'll have breakfast in Milan, and lunch in Rome" "You'll surely reach Palermo in time for Vespers" 020
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 11/09/2026All true but also, how tf is institutional-scale food more expensive than home bought? 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Small business is an over broad category. Urban greengrocers, small-scale manufacturing, and car dealerships all have different social benefits & costs. 010
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 09/09/2026All downstream of the Nixon pardon. The idea that a president experiencing legal consequences would be bad for the country -- very damaging. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Voter amnesia swings both ways I guess, hard to be mad about 2020 when there's so much current stuff to hate 020
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 09/09/2026It's a weird list but I'm interested, what sort of paint stripper goes into $3.40/L Slivovica? 121
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Not if our priors are from 1955 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026My local butcher's has a sign "we don't sell halal meat" and I'm truly not sure if its a courtesy to Muslims, or a f-you to Muslims 090
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026There is also Constantine, a saint, and famously not great to family members 0192
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 03/09/2026More than 51% -- so, the majority of Aussies, then? 021
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 31/08/2026They also ran out of specific foods really often. Butter, fresh dairy? Nah, not getting that until the grass grows back after winter. Also the cabbages have moulded. Its bean and carrot soup for a while, maybe with a bit of bacon on Sundays. 110
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Although I do like seeing an ancient person's take on it. Because there are some ancient societies that seem awfully fascist (in groups, imagined glorious past, obsessing with loyalty, etc). Heck even a top-down, state driven (proto? semi?)nationalism is all over the ancient world. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 26/08/2026"My life sucked, so yours should, too" is a heck of a way to get votes 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 24/08/2026There's a bit in _Shores of Silver Lake_ where Pa Ingalls is talking about a future where everyone can ride on trains. And they're like 20 - 30 years from cars and airplanes. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Thing is, there are people who can't afford food at cost. They will need direct assistance. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Yeah but it could be means tested without being onerous, without work requirements. Beyond that, USA seems to have forgotten how to regulate major industries. Universal service, and regulated pricing, already exist and work well. 000
broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social @broadusjeffcoat.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Yes but the problem with "just make all food cheaper for everyone" is that the farm workers, grocers, distributors, truckers, etc all need to make a living. This requires subsidies. 101
