uriel238

@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Beautiful stories like this just make you smile⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago⁩:

  Here is an odd take:

  In the CSI episode Ellie, The eponymous Ellie Brass is caught up in a situation, and Warrick is sent to work his forensic magic. In the end, after dealing with Ellie’s attitude throughout, Brass tells Warrick Ellie is the result of an affair, but she doesn’t know, and believs Brass is her bio-dad.

  Ellie was a popular episode, so the character became recurring.

  With the population so high, I’m personally not desperate to see my genes perpetuated. It was drilled into me that having kids in poverty is a really bad idea, also I never thought I’d be a good dad (though I get to do dad stuff for my adult stepdaughters and grandpa stuff for their kids so it goes.) For most of my life having kids was off my agenda.

  Granted, my wife and I would still have to sort out matters of the affair. If relationship exclusivity was betrayed or communication was lacking, she and I would have to sort that out.

  And yet If we were in a position to raise children, then it wouldn’t matter to me if the genes were mine or someone else’s. I would still be a dad or at least a participatory adult involved in raising them. They’d grow up with my values and be witting and deliberate when they rejected them.

  Of course I’m mad enough to be a regular at the March Hare’s tea room (🐰🎩🫖☕️) so hopefully I wouldn’t inflict that on them too much.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Beautiful stories like this just make you smile⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago⁩:

  Ain’t no use in calling home,
  Jody’s on your telephone.

  Ain’t no use in going home.
  Jody’s got your girl and gone.

  Ain’t no use in feeling blue,
  Jody’s got your sister too.

  Ain’t no use in looking back,
  Jody’s got your Cadillac.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I never realized this⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  🤓

  To be fair, even before the plagues, workers were way in demand (and hence every single adult that reaches majority, or youth that wishes to pretend). Throughout the agrarian age, societies suffered from a stark labor shortage, which is why even bastard kids were not too frowned upon, and even those with disabilities were sought for anything they might be able to do.

  That all changed in the industrial age, when fewer people were necessary to run machines that did work.

  In modern day, this is an issue with religious movements (cults whether dangerous or not) who decide to create their own commune. Either the intentional community has too few people to complete all the necessary tasks, or enough that renegade behavior (corruption, antisocial behavior, etc.) becomes a problem, since security details cannot help but become political.

  /🤓

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When my dad tries to be outgoing:⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I love your dad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My favorite⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Calling Olive Garden Italian food is like calling Taco Bell Mexican cuisine

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I never realized this⁩ ⁨⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  The reason women take their husband’s name is because they’re property, and rights to their person transfers from their father to their husband.

  That’s it.

  And right now (at least in the States, maybe in some parts of Europe) there are large far-right movements trying to return society to those days.

  Find your crew or your fam, and have them give you your given name. Then choose your surname. Break free.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I never realized this⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  It is weird because we as a civilization believe women are persons and corporations are not. And sooner or later, molotovs will be theown in support of this notion, since silence is being interpreted as consent.

  Whoops. That was my outside voice.🪀🪀💣🪀

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I never realized this⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Make up your own surname to assert dominance. Or go by your internet handle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Equal under the law or something⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Our ownership class and the institutions that obey them in favor of good governance are due full recognition. Should all acquaintance be forgot, the CIA extrajudicial detention and enhanced interrogation torture program was completely developed not because that’s a good way to get intelligence (it’s not) but because some rich people were sore about 9/11 and wanted to see Arab Muslims suffer, whether they were related to the event or not. (Compare and contrast price-tag killings in Palestine.)

  The escalation of charges against Luigi Mangione to terrorism are not due to any evidence, and in fact prosecutors and attorneys general have already weighed in that Murder One will be difficult to prove (NYC has a tightly constrained definition of M1. Assuming they have sound evidence linking Mangione to the crime – they may not – Murder Two is the the most likely conviction.)

  It was noted on the day of the attack that certain hate crime homicides in NYC were ignored in news media. A fellow was shanked for not being sufficiently white by a white supremacist, and that incident is not being considered grounds for terrorism, even though the hate-crime aspects of the incident are already evident. What’s the difference? Mangione attacked someone of the ownership class, and they have influence enough to corrupt our justice system while we watch.

  All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A love story⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Since when does the CIA care about ethics?

  Though the majority of the cold war.

  On both sides of the Iron Curtain, field agents played nice with each other, even if the folks they recruited from the locals might be expendable. But disposing of a problematic VIP by diverting them into other interests, or spooking them / bribing them to get lost or whatever was much preferred to killing them. Not just because it was a moral matter, but also because the blowback would be significantly reduced.

  Actual James Bond deaths were reserved for moles (that is, double agents, plants in one agency that secretly worked for the other side). Notoriously, a CIA mole in KGB was discovered and the entire floor was invited to watch him fed feet first into a blast furnace. (CIA even then preferred a trick from WWII, namely stuffing the agent in a remote prison surrounded by snow and cliffs where they are instructed to keep sending information to their handler… as long as they want to keep living.)

  That all changed after 2001, specifically the 9/11 attacks and the PATRIOT act. The first sign things went foul was the burning of Valerie Plame for political reasons. The kind of true-believer American patriots would never burn an asset for a cheap political retaliation. That’s the sort of thing that gets political loved ones disappeared.

  But then CIA started the extrajudicial detention and enhanced interrogation program. (We have far, far better ways to debrief enemy agents, even those who are trained to resist. Sometimes cookies are involved.. Then CIA was burning villages with PMCs. Then CIA was burning them with Predator Drones.

  So yeah, CIA lost the plot in the 21st century, though I can’t speak to the ground crew, the analysts and OG field personnel. And to be perfectly fair, CIA had to develop ethics by trial and error, which is to say making a lot of mistakes resulting in blowback, and they still tried to kill Castro, only securing his position running Cuba until he died. But with that history, it hurts being ordered to do black work after we’d long learned not to do black work and learned alternatives.

  And then, it was recently revealed that the reign of J. Edgar Hoover is regarded by FBI as a shameful period, since Hoover used the bureau to serve political interests of the administrations rather than to serve justice, something FBI has yet to live down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A love story⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Because hooking you up with a hot partner is way more ethical.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's the game you play when nothing else sounds good?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Galaxy’s Finest! 🪨⛏️💎

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's the game you play when nothing else sounds good?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Deep Rock Galactic is good even in singleplayer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You don’t pick an adult cat up by the scruff! But – at least for some videogenic cats – they will instinctively relax.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A clamp (padded, preferably) on the scruff of the neck will temporarily brick a cat.

  Try this only with familiar cats with whom you have rapport.

  Don’t leave them for too long. A few minutes at most.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Do not pet’: Why are robot dogs patrolling Mar-A-Lago?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That is the way that the police work in the United States yes.

  We’re not talking about the police, we’re talking about the Secret Service protecting the President-Elect of the United States… at a golf park Not only that, but a park where people have to be super rich since access to Trump (leader of the GOP and now President-elect) is figured into the membership fee.

  And while the police are happy to gun down the rest of us shlubs, they treat rich people like they treated OJ Simpson after he hacked up Nicole Brown. When they don’t and they actually shoot a rich person, then high-powered (blue-haired) lawyers come and sue the precinct and county for enough money to collapse the GDP.

  But I do hear you. Police in the US are bastards to the last.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Do not pet’: Why are robot dogs patrolling Mar-A-Lago?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s assuming I actually look like a threat, rather than someone infatuated with the weird robot dog.

  It’s a golf park full of rich old people. I bet the dog-hecklers will come dozens per hour.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Do not pet’: Why are robot dogs patrolling Mar-A-Lago?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The ones at Mar-A-Lago are unarmed.

  My approach to the armed ones, particularly the tazer-equipped ones used by some US law enforcement departments, would be very different.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨America's Next Health Secretary Enjoying A Meal With His Future Boss and Colleagues⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Dang it. He’s not the master vampire.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨America's Next Health Secretary Enjoying A Meal With His Future Boss and Colleagues⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Is that Leonard Leo in the back? (Right side)

  That’s the master vampire! If we stake him, the rest lose their powers!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Do not pet’: Why are robot dogs patrolling Mar-A-Lago?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Coo at them. Pet them. Call them a good doggie. Drop a treat on them, all in defiance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Zuckerberg: The AI Slop Will Continue Until Morale Improves⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Obvously Facebook- and Zuckerberg-mocking AI content must continue until morale improves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Typing monkey would be unable to produce 'Hamlet' within the lifetime of the universe, study finds⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The original thought experiment had to do with playing around with infinity, which is a whole field of mathematics with a lot of crossover. It raises questions like whether we can assume any fixed-length sequence of digits can be found somewhere in the mantissa of a given irrational number (say, π).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fired Employee Allegedly Hacked Disney World's Menu System to Alter Peanut Allergy Information⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  In a company as blue-chip as Disney, the discontinuation of access and privileges and security clearance are indicators of imminent repositioning, likely firing if you’ve engaged in mischief (such as voicing your opinion or comparing salaries).

  It’s why you give sweet Christmas presents to the awkward guy in HR and invite him to all your socials. Blow him if he’s into it. He’s your intel source regarding who is in danger of discharge, and if the boss doesn’t like you.

  This disgruntled guy had to be lower rank than the mailroom if HR wasn’t given notice, and his access was super low priority. No-one cared.

  (Yes, I’m bitter.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Typing monkey would be unable to produce 'Hamlet' within the lifetime of the universe, study finds⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So the secret to this thought experiment is to understand that infinite is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is…

  The lifespan of the universe from big bang to heat death (the longest scenario) is a blink of an eye to eternity. The breadth and size of the universe – not just what we can see, but how big it is with all the inflation bits, even as its expanding faster than the speed of light – just a mote in a sunbeam compared to infinity.

  Infinity itself looks flat and uninteresting. Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity – distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless. And thus we don’t imagine just how vast and literally impossible infinity is.

  With an infinite number of monkeys, not only will you get one that will write out a Hamlet script perfectly the first time, formatted exactly as you need it, but you’ll have an infinite number of them. Yes, the percentage of the total will be very small (though not infinitesimally so), and even if you do a partial search you’re going to get a lot of false hits. But 0.000001% of ∞ is still ∞. ∞ / [Graham’s Number] = ∞

  It’s a lot of monkeys.

  Now, because the monkeys and typewriters and Shakespeare thought experiment isn’t super useful unless you’re dealing with angels and devils (they get to play with infinities. The real world is all normal numbers) the model has been paired down in Dawkin’s Weasel ( on Wikipedia ) and Weasel Programs which demonstrate how evolution (specifically biological evolution) isn’t random rather has random features, but natural selection is informed by, well, selection. Specifically survivability in a harsh environment. When slow rabbits fail to breed, the rabbits will mutate to be faster over generations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Feds Say You Don’t Have a Right to Check Out Retro Video Games Like Library Books⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Feds are wrong, or would be if copyright continued to serve its original purpose (according to the Constitution of the United States) to create a robust public domain.

  All media should be accessible through public libraries, and arguments by federal courts presumes that the public does not have vested interest in content. It presumes the government isn’t there to serve the public, which raises questions as to why we have government in the first place.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The US Supreme Court has has an antagonistic relationship to the forth amd fifth amendments to the Constitution of the United States since before I was a kid in the 1970s since they often interfered with efforts to round up nonwhites. But after the 9/11 attacks and the PATRIOT ACT, SCOTUS has been shredding both amendments with carve-out exceptions.

  Then Law Enforcement uses tech without revealing it in court, often lying ( parallel reconstruction ) to conceal questionable use, and the courts give them the benefit of the doubt.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile, AT&T oppose unlocking rule, claim locked phones are good for users⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sadly, I don’t know enough about it to give you advice. Every time I switched phones or services, I had to twaddle with the settings until I could get features (commonly MMS, or SMS with media) so that they worked properly. If AT&T is actually blocking you out for refusing to use an AT&T phone, the trick would be to get the phone to pretend it’s an AT&T phone, then way Firefox can pretend it’s Chrome when it needs to.

  But I don’t know the specifics.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile, AT&T oppose unlocking rule, claim locked phones are good for users⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you get phones from the manufacturer they’re not labeled compatible with AT&T so much as that they have access to specific radio ranges and are controlled either by soft-stored codes or by a SIM card, and I’d buy the sim card from the service, and then stick it in my phone. The Sony I had for a while was compatible with both the T-Mobile and AT&T ranges, and I used a third party service that was an el-cheapo front for T-Mobile.

  T-Mobile wanted me to pay extra for hot-spot use, but I got around that with software, which is like hacking the subscription seat warmers on your BMW.

  Curiously, Apple phones will lock themselves (or did for a while… is it better now?) based on what service you initially connected them to, and you have to (had to, I hope) get their permission and pay fees to unlock it again.

  The telecommunication companies are an oligopoly, so like a legal cartel, so they pull a lot of bullshit that we end users have to suffer. But it means I feel not a jot of guilt when I hack the hell out of it to extract services I didn’t pay for, since it’s all a grift anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile, AT&T oppose unlocking rule, claim locked phones are good for users⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Locked phones are what led me into the rabbit hole of purchasing phones from manufacturer, since the carriers not only lock phones but hobble the OS.

  It did mean understanding what was necessary for a phone to qualify for given carriers, but I can tech when I need to, and I tech for my friends when they need it.

  In 2024, T Mobile and AT&T (and Verizon) have all demonstrated they do not engage in good faith commerce, and so right now they’re being sniveling little shits (quote me please) because the FCC and DoC are escaping regulatory capture.

  That is to say, the end users are tired of their shit. Apple and Google, too.