ArbitraryValue

@ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The difference is real⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, criminals generally don’t like law enforcement officers…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Well, That’s One Way to Sell Americans on Electric Cars. The U.S. has been wary of EVs. As the cost of gas soars, we’re now paying the price.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Are we? I’m looking to buy a car now and I think gas cars make the most sense even now, because the change in the price of gas seems like a relatively small part of the cost of car ownership. A one dollar increase in the cost of a gallon of gas works out to about $300 a year in extra costs for me. That’s not enough to tip the balance towards an electric car.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why conservative men repeatedly crash Grindr⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But what about the people with strongly felt but incoherent world-views, like the ones who voted for Sanders before voting for Trump? They need memes too!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What the fuck is going on with Iran and what will happen next?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that most Trump voters support isolationism symbolically. They want a leader who prioritizes them rather than perceived others, but they don’t actually have a strong opinion about specific foreign policies per se. Attacking Iran does challenge that symbolism, but in the absence of direct effects on their own lives, their trust in Trump’s established “America first” reputation will go a long way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨spoopy figs⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Most vegans do. The general idea is to avoid exploiting animals, but the wasps are living out their natural life cycle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fascism bad.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve seen some interesting discussion of this linked to the idea of survive/thrive strategies. Is the world a dangerous place that calls for avoiding risks and protecting what you have, or is it full of opportunities and calls for exploring and being open to novelty? Neither inclination is fundamentally wrong. But I’m not sure how to reconcile that with modern “rightists” who want to burn down the system and aren’t conservative in the lowercase-C sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We’re going to end up in a situation where whatever is necessary to train AI is permitted, and the main question is whether that will be through (re)interpretation of existing law or the passage of a new law.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York considers bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal, medical advice⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you don’t want legal or medical advice from an AI, you can already simply not ask the AI for legal or medical advice. But I don’t want your paternalistic restrictions on what I may ask.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tech industry is in tariff hell, even if refunds are automated⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The content of the article does not match the title. It doesn’t actually talk specifically about the tech industry or claim that it is in particular difficulty.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨40% of teenage boys believe women lie about domestic and sexual violence: new research⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think that a poll which indicates that one in five girls supports violence to resist feminism should be interpreted without any reservations, as this article seems to be doing. The number of adolescents who support endorsing violence in order to mess with uptight pollsters is apparently quite high…

  As for lying - it’s a matter of fact that people, including women making accusations of serious crimes, sometimes lie. Maybe there’s more to the question than is presented in the article?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Polymarket Takes Down Betting on Nuclear Detonation After Backlash⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well now that I can’t make money on Polymarket, I have no reason to start a nuclear war anymore. The world is saved.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am an amateur propagandist. A hobbyist. Enthusiast, if you will.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Netanyahu’s sons did serve in the Israeli military, although how much danger they were actually in is unknown to me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI Is Destroying Grocery Supply Chains⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s nothing in this article about problems with AI specifically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A remarkable discovery was made during scientific research of Karin Månsdotter’s grave⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  1612

  Isn’t that a bit recent for the sort of archeology that involves removing golden objects from tombs?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨High IQ men tend to be less conservative than their average peers, study finds⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A total of 87 gifted adults and 71 non-gifted adults completed the survey.

  I haven’t looked at their math but can that be enough data to look at eight different categories and avoid the green jelly beans phenomenon?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨outlawing pedestrians⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Just because I don’t want to endure something unpleasant doesn’t mean I can’t - the argument I’m responding to isn’t that walking is survivable but that it’s preferable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨outlawing pedestrians⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I like walking when I’m not in a hurry and the weather is nice, but the weather usually isn’t nice in most parts of the country (the US West Coast is an exception to that). I’m looking at moving to a southern state now and the only reason I’m even considering it is that I would be living in a car centered area where I wouldn’t have to spend more than a couple of minutes a day outdoors during the summer. Compare that to NYC where I used to live: milder summers, but still hot, and I had no choice but to endure them because I couldn’t drive to most places I went to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Let's take a moment to remember the time period when everyone had to adjust to using dual-joysticks on controllers.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I gave up on console gaming for the same reason (the last console I owned was a Super Nintendo) but that’s because mouse+keyboard is just so superior that using dual-joystick controllers feels like punishment rather than entertainment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In the future, it will be considered unbelievable that repairing a product used to be more expensive than buying a new one⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the opposite is going to be true. One thing I noticed when I moved recently is that’s it’s getting cheaper to throw out perfectly good stuff and then buy it again rather than paying to have it shipped long distance too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The classics⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I wish it told me what the title of the deleted video was, so that at least I could know what I was missing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A look at Moltbook, a social network where OpenClaw assistants interact autonomously, as they discuss consciousness and identity, technical tips, and more⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Another good article about this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone should really do something⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to work at a company involved in breast cancer screening, and one of the skills I learned on that job was how to say the word “breast” without giggling. It was a small startup so we had some interesting people, including a woman who, when discussing how the machine worked, would just grab one of her own breasts through her shirt and start poking it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vienam Bans Unskippable Ads, Requires Skip Button to Appear After 5 Seconds - Saigoneer⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m glad that at least one government is stepping in to protect the helpless public from, uh, ads over five seconds long.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 11’s 2025 problems are getting impossible to ignore⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Windows seems to be transitioning from being software you run to being an experience that Microsoft provides to you. The pattern of pushing new features to users unpredictably and without the option to refuse is clearly inappropriate in the first model but natural in the second. As a power user I strongly prefer the first model, but I recognize that most people these days might be ok with having their computer work like a website they access or an app they run on their phone - something they have no control over the state of.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How often do you change your towels?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Devastating': Amnesty Rips Hegseth Memo Reversing Limits on Landmines⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the war in Ukraine has shown us that landmines are so effective that any nation’s ban on them is only going to last as long as no serious war is being fought.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Damn⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Clearly he’s out of practice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who shops at small businesses?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I do wonder about stores like that. According to a friend of mine who worked on the household staff of a very rich family, they did buy extremely expensive stuff in boutique stores even when much cheaper alternatives were almost as good (or even equally good, I suspect) but how many rich people like that are there?

• Who shops at small businesses?
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨39⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The ancient Greeks or Chinese should have already had words for this.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Speaking of mind blowing… I took ketamine for the first time a few months ago (by prescription from a psychiatrist, yada yada yada). I have just come back to normal from a ketamine trip during which I constantly kept thinking about what you’ve said. In fact, I was thinking about it so much that I couldn’t relax enough to get the full effect of the ketamine. For me, the first thing that lets me know that the ketamine is kicking in is that I gain the ability to “see” even though my eyes are closed. I remain aware that I’m sitting in my living room and wearing a blindfold, but in my mind there are patterns that I can look at and think “Ooh that’s pretty.” Not just the abstract sensation of seeing a pretty pattern, but actually an experience like vision, complete with the ability to look at a different part of the pattern and see something new. When I stop being able to do that, I know that the ketamine has worn off.

  I thought that that’s what people called hallucinating, which seemed odd to me since I never felt like what I was seeing in my mind was real, whereas people say that hallucinations can seem real. Now I wonder - can some other people, like you, just see things in their mind that way all the time? Amazing!

  I don’t mean to imply that I think your experience of the world is the same as mine is on ketamine, since ketamine does a lot more than let me look at pretty patterns. The first time I took it, I was sad since I realized that I was all that existed and the entire world was a figment of my imagination, a dream that I woke from. But being able to look at things in my mind has been beautiful and very dramatically different from the way my brain works without ketamine. So far I’ve only seen patterns like twinkling lights, clouds, or mazes. You’re saying that you can see anything you want… Excuse me because I’m going to say something immature: if I could see things in my mind like that, then it would take me a really long time (if ever) to get tired of just seeing naked ladies.

  But if I really have aphantasia, how is it that I’ve always been good at “using my imagination”? I love reading fantasy novels and they’re not just words on a page for me. And how do I solve geometry problems in my mind? Strange.