Boddhisatva
@Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
It is legal in some places including Oregon, if you live in the United States under the Death with Dignity Act passed in October, 1997. I don’t know much about it other than the name, but if you are in the states you can check their web page for details and requirements.
- Comment on If conditions on earth are perfect for life to form shouldn't have happened more than once? 1 day ago:
For all we know it did. We believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old but it’s estimated that conditions suitable for life only appeared about 200 million years after that. Since the oldest fossils we’ve found are 3.7 billion years old, there is a 600 million year gap between when we think life could have formed and out earliest records of it.
There is every possibility that life formed multiple times in different environments on Earth in those first few hundred million years and then been wiped out by one of the frequent cataclysms that ravaged the early Earth. We have no way of knowing though. If life formed around a volcanic vent and then got wiped out by a meteor impact there would be no evidence it ever happened. Even if such life was wiped out by a climatic shift or something like that, there still wouldn’t likely be much evidence left if any right now. The Earth’s surface has been changed so much in the last 3.7 billion years, there are very few areas older than that where such fossil records from before that could be found.
- Comment on The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. 3 days ago:
And this isn’t just the lead and the love interest: supporting characters look this way too, and even villains (frequently clad in monstrous makeup) are still played by conventionally attractive performers. Even background extras are good-looking, or at least inoffensively bland. No one is ugly. No one is really fat. Everyone is beautiful.
Heh, this reminds me of this scene in Last Action Hero (Just watch until 1:34 or so for the scene I’m referring to.
Honestly though, I think this might be starting to change. Looking at shows like Resident Alien and Wheel of Time, for example, there are plenty of casting choices that go against that trend. Now, I’m not saying anyone in these shows is ugly or anything like that, but there are a lot of folks being cast who are not “classic Hollywood pretty” and it’s very nice to see. I like seeing people playing the everyday Joe art who actually looks like an everyday Joe. It really breaks immersion for me when the “ugly girl” part is played by someone who is beautiful dressed in a frumpy outfit.
- Comment on The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. 3 days ago:
We’re so conditioned to think realistic violence in games is fine, but realistic sex in games is “wrong” or “sad”.
Not just in games. In all media. You bring to mind a great quote from George R. R. Martin.
“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.”
- Comment on Imagine there was a society in which blue eyed people are referred to with blee/bler pronouns, and green eyed people are referred to with glee/gler pronouns... 1 week ago:
Thanks for the link. I had never heard of this either.
- Comment on Google CIO Calls Trump Admin’s Climate Denialism “Fantastic” | Ruth Porat called for data centers to be powered by coal, gas, and nuclear 1 week ago:
Somebody has been spending too much time chatting with their LLM.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
It has been claimed. It’s also rumored that Ghislaine Maxwell’s father Robert was a double agent that worked for Mossad according to a former Mossad agent.
The claims are being made by the alleged former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe in a soon-to-be-released book “Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales” in which he said that he was the handler of Ghislaine’s father Robert Maxwell, who was also an Israeli espionage agent and was the one who introduced his daughter and Epstein to Mossad…
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
It is now being alleged that the Trump administration stepped in directly and expedited his release and return to Israel. If true, his MAGAts may blow a gasket. Though to be fair, everyone should blow a gasket if it’s true.
- Comment on [Video] Cops not sure whether to arrest man with "Plasticine Action" shirt for supporting terrorism 1 week ago:
Not fans of AI, actually. Under the Plasticine Action, it says “WE OPPOSE AI GENERATED ANIMATION”
- Comment on Star Trek: Lower Decks Wins Two Hugo Awards, Celebrating Series Finale and 'Warp Your Own Way' Graphic Novel 1 week ago:
I agree about Prodigy. It was a really good show.
- Comment on Neil Young Leaves Facebook & Instagram Over “Unconscionable” Policies for AI Chatbot Conversations With Children 1 week ago:
Oh, is Ted having trouble finding jailbait these days?
- Comment on Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain' 1 week ago:
There’s no way for Valve to accept and then immediately convert Crypto to USD.
I didn’t realize that. It does seem an insurmountable problem.
- Comment on Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain' 1 week ago:
I had heard that Steam used to accept crypto but the volatility of the currency was a major issue. Maybe try cryptocurrency again.
Perhaps they could set up a system where they could make a sale in bitcoin or something then immediately convert to USD. They could add a processing fee to the sale to cover any conversion fees.
I know nothing about actually doing any of this beyond having bought and sold BTC in the past. I was just wondering if it would be possible.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Every single post I can see for OP is now “deleted by creator”
- Comment on If I invented a shirt that caused cameras to be damaged when filmed/photographed, would I be committing a crime by wearing the shirt at events with cameras? 2 weeks ago:
More like illegal to wear anywhere in the USA considering that we’re quickly becoming a surveillance state.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
She may need to see a specialist to figure out if she should be committed, but I don’t think anyone could prove she broke a law.
Can we just say she’s dangerous and untrainable? Just a thought…
- Comment on Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose 2 weeks ago:
I wonder if a legitimate case could be made for a class action lawsuit to stop this? The class would literally include ever person alive and yet to be born/
- Comment on New study sheds light on ChatGPT’s alarming interactions with teens 2 weeks ago:
In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and half use AI companions regularly.
I weep for the future. Come to think of it, I’m weeping for the present.
- Comment on Schools are using AI to spy on students and some are getting arrested for misinterpreted jokes and private conversations 2 weeks ago:
Dream? Not in an American school you don’t. You need to stay alert and be ready to “RUN, HIDE, FIGHT” at any moment.
- Comment on X plans to show ads in Grok chatbot's answers 2 weeks ago:
That’s really good news, honestly. It’ll make it very easy for someone to make a list of all the companies you should avoid doing business with. What kind of vile company would advertise on Mechahitler?
- Comment on Schools are using AI to spy on students and some are getting arrested for misinterpreted jokes and private conversations 2 weeks ago:
Oh, I’m with you on that. I’m just pointing out the thought behind the policy, however flawed. I’ve been to Europe many years ago. I would love to be there now, except that as an American I would be rightly ostracized.
- Comment on Remote Learning Accidentally Introduced a New Danger for LGBTQ Students 2 weeks ago:
One thing that occurs to me, that is not mentioned in the article, is the data mining and retention. Companies like Gaggle are no doubt keeping all the data they are getting. It will be sold and used in the future. The data would be a treasure trove for advertisers and political organizations. I foresee a Cambridge Analytica for a new generation.
Also, it may sound like science fiction, but the idea of using machine learning with this and data collected in the future to generate algorithms to predict future behavior and attitudes based on childhood writings and online behavior is probably on these companies drawing boards.
- Comment on Remote Learning Accidentally Introduced a New Danger for LGBTQ Students 2 weeks ago:
It’s not just devices on loan from the schools.
Whether on school-issued devices or downloaded onto students’ own, these software tools do not disclose the source code of their software nor how they prioritize student information for review and reporting, leaving parents, students, and even school administrators ignorant of what the privacy concerns even are before they can begin working for mitigation. But what is known is not good. A.I. automation tools, such as those used by Gaggle, are rife with broken promises about accuracy. They often have fundamental racial and gender biases. A consequence of using these tools to monitor students’ online content is that they will disproportionately affect people of color and marginalized groups.
If you have your own computer, and don’t want to use the school one, they would have you install the software on your own machine. It’s not clear why parents or students would consent to that. It was probably something like, you need to use MS Word or Google docs for your homework so you need to install this software to do so.
The use of Gaggle has resulted in the constant monitoring of students through their Gmail and Microsoft Office accounts, even when at home using personal devices. Gaggle even monitors in real time the content being written by students on Google Docs.
The level of surveillance is breathtaking.
- Comment on Schools are using AI to spy on students and some are getting arrested for misinterpreted jokes and private conversations 2 weeks ago:
Not sure what’s worse here: how the police overreacted or that the software immediately contacts law enforcement, without letting teachers (n.b.: they are the professionals here, not the police) go through the positives first.
The idea behind the policy is to stop school shootings. If there were a legitimate threat of violence, you would likely want the police to be notified as soon as possible. The issue here is that the authorities are letting a piece of half-ass code (Read: AI) decide what is a legitimate threat and, worse still, acting on that determination without question.
They have literally sacrificed an essential freedom for some temporary, and probably illusory, security.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
That’s kind of the point of the article I linked to. Yeah, everyone is upset about Cricket, but the goat matters too.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
Right, so it doesn’t matter what Noem did, because there is already so much cruelty out there? Why are people defending her cruelty by pointing out the existence of institutional cruelty? They are both bad. One does not refute the other.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
So because there are institutional scale cruelties like this, then it doesn’t matter that a person in a position high in the American government is bragging about her personal cruelty to animals? I am simply pointing out her failings in this regard and you are telling me what? It doesn’t matter what she did because there’s already a lot of cruelty out there?
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
Sadly, I am. There are laws about how the animals can be put down and though they are not what I would want them to be, they do at least somewhat limit the cruelty inherent in the process.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
The point isn’t the killing of the animal. It’s the method and needless suffering involved. Taking pot shots at them until they’re dead is a little beyond the pale.
- Comment on YSK: US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem publically bragged about killing her puppy 2 weeks ago:
Here is another article that takes a more detailed take about what she bragged about in her book. It also focuses more on the legal aspects, pointing out that her killing of the goat appears to have violated the states animal cruelty laws. If nothing else, the details about this give a clear, and disturbing view into the type of person she is.
“Walking back up to the yard, I spotted our billy goat,” Noem wrote.
The nameless goat’s only sin in that moment was being in Noem’s field of view.
In the book, Noem tried to justify her snap decision to kill the goat by writing that it “loved to chase” her children and would “knock them down and butt them,” leaving them “terrified.” The animal also had a “wretched smell.”
But apparently none of that had been a big enough problem to do anything about it. Not until Noem got angry enough to kill a dog and decided she needed to kill again.
Noem says she “dragged” the goat to the gravel pit, “tied him to a post,” and shot at him. But the goat jumped when she shot.
“My shot was off and I needed one more shell to finish the job,” she wrote.
She studiously avoided saying she wounded the goat with the first shot, but that’s the implication.
“Not wanting him to suffer,” she added — apparently experiencing her first twinge of feeling, after saying that killing the dog was not “pleasant” — “I hustled back across the pasture to the pickup, grabbed another shell, hurried back to the gravel pit, and put him down.”
…
In reality, what Noem did to the goat — dragging it to a gravel pit, tying it to a post, shooting at it once, leaving to get another shell, and shooting it again — sounds an awful lot like the legal definition of animal cruelty. That definition in South Dakota law is “to intentionally, willfully, and maliciously inflict gross physical abuse on an animal that causes prolonged pain, that causes serious physical injury, or that results in the death of the animal.”
