ChaoticNeutralCzech

joined 5 months ago
[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yup, Leopold II was just insanely evil. He had illiterate tribal chiefs unknowingly sign their land away, and to avoid slavery accusations, the Leopold-led "Congo Free State's" people only labored unwillingly to "pay their taxes". To prevent the mostly indigenous patrols from revolting, their ammo was only replenished if they returned the right hand of a victim per bullet. They were underfed and needed to hunt, obtaining extra bullets by maiming innocent people. However, Leopold II was very good at managing PR, basically a trailblazer for modern politicians and CEOs, so few people understood the conditions the rubber was harvested under and he avoided consequences for policies that killed millions. Just as Congo gained independence, Belgium started a civil war to try to wrestle power back. The CIA also destabilized the region by various operations including the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.

A very good 3-part episode from Behind the Bastards podcast series on Congo: 1 2 3

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thinnest Unicode whitespace. In my headcanon, the Czech language uses it as the preferred thousands separator (though some people prefer thin space, and most people just use space or nbsp) and I sometimes use it in German and English too because it's unambiguous.

Example uses:
3 141 592 653.589
s u b t l e   k e r n i n g

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

The Belgians made so much money from slave-harvested rubber that they indeed built decent highways and other infrastructure. Of course, those weren't for the indigenous population, only motor vehicles could use them. After the revolution, the nation had no finance, expertise and stability to maintain them.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 18 points 2 weeks ago

My financial portfolio when I start trading paints:

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 81 points 2 weeks ago

There are specialized machines for this that resemble industrial vacuum cleaners but even bigger. Cleaned balls are bagged and get poured back once the floor and walls are sanitized. Do the operators keep track of when this was last done? Yes, and they aren't proud of it so you won't see cleaning logs hanging nearby like at most mall toilets.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Capital IT in the title please (you can still edit it) or it feels like an aneurysm

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 21 points 2 weeks ago

Yes but he's a symptom, not the cause. His 2016 victory was not a fluke.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I like the triple-crossed "$". That's how you know it's BIG MONEY and not just $100 in pennies. The money-pattern sack top is also cool.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I knew you could write and perform with accents, but paint?
/s

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Dearborn, Michigan, after its population drops by 30%: "Thanks for removing the bad hombres"

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

I concede that very few people bother to learn the sequence or create a keybinding to symbols used at school. You can copy/paste if you only need it rarely, or use a software symbol selector (its icon in Word and Sheets is literally Ω). However, every keyboard that has a searchable emoji picker should also index the rest of Unicode in my opinion.

Custom keybindings I use the most are (in no particular order) πµΩαβγΔΣσ²³±√∞≤≥≠∈⋮⌀∙█⚠☢☣♥⚙✔✖❗←↑→↓·–ẞ, nbsp and hair space. There is also ☃ (Shift+AltGr+8) as an XKCD reference.

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