pjwestin

@pjwestin@lemmy.world

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨>:)>⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
I mean, it it has pupils like that, it has a wide field of vision. That’s the whole point of rectangular pupils. I would assume that having front-facing eyes would also give it depth perception, but maybe it needed that for making difficult jumps or something?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The U.S. Just Ran a Solar Storm Emergency Drill. The Real Deal Would Be a Catastrophe⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

Not sure, though, how this ploy would work out for our fine fellows in South America and Canada, the ones currently belabored with being the closest neighbours…

Fuck Mexico, I guess.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Love this⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
If you’re able to live on your own over the age of 90, you’re killing it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI models routinely lie when honesty conflicts with their goals⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Relatable.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The ‘Profound’ Experience of Seeing a New Color⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
There’s a Lovecraft story about this exact thing. It doesn’t end well.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI models routinely lie when honesty conflicts with their goals⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Same.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It really is just reddit <3⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I think mods should remove misinformation, but to my mind, for something to rise to the level of, “misinformation,” it needs to be egregiously false and harmful, like vaccine skepticism or election denial. Removing a comment, which is effectively true but debatably incorrect from a wonkish perspective, and labeling it misinformation? That’s bullshit.

If they wanted to remove comment where he says, “blue Maga,” whatever. Not the way I would run a community, but whatever. If they want to ban him for posting screenshots from the automod, OK, I guess he was poking the bear at that point. But the only reason to pull that other comment is because it contradicted their worldview. That’s bad in most communities, but in a news community, it’s unacceptable.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It really is just reddit <3⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Yeah, I checked the modlogs, and it was exactly the mod I thought it was. There are two mods on News and Political Memes that don’t like criticism of Democrats. Someone picked a fight with me on Political Memes, calling me a, “fucking moron,” and telling me I didn’t understand something. I showed him polling that disproved him, and he tried to prove that the Pew Research Center didn’t know how to conduct a survey. We were rude back and forth to each other for a while, but the kid who instigated the fight caught a 1 day ban for, “rudeness,” while I got a perma-ban for, “trolling.” They even left up separate comments on the same thread where told another user they were, “too stupid,” and to, “shut the fuck up.” It’s best to just block the communities they mod.

For the record, it’s a disgrace that they pulled that one comment for, “misinformation.” The only thing I would dispute is the claim that, “Biden [sold] more protected land than any other president,” and, “[approved] more drilling for fraking than any other.” Oil production did boom under him, and he expanded drilling on federal lands after promising not to, but I think the rate of sale and approval was about the same a Trump. Either way, that’s not misinformation, it’s just nuance.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Choose one⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
No matter who you are, no matter where you work, the facilities team is really in charge.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Choose one⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Wait, is that really it? Because that’s fucking awesome.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Choose one⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I’ve always assumed it was some sort of ornate, ceremonial hammer made of pure gold that they keep in a special chamber, but now that you mentioned it, I really hope it’s just a claw hammer they borrow from the maintenance guy.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suspected 4chan Hack Could Expose Longtime, Anonymous Admins⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Not really. QAnon was only on 4Chan for the first year, then it migrated to 8Chan. But the tl;dr is it was probably started as a joke, taken over by bad-faith trolls, and has been under the control of Ron Watkins and his creepy son for a significant amount of time. QAnon Anonymous (now named QAA) is a great Podcast that’s been tracking the Q movement and other right-wing extremists for years.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How likely is it that Trump will be the first President assassinated since Kennedy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Maybe, but I imagine the Secret Service has a drone-attack plan. I would guess that most of D.C. is probably a no-fly zone for drones, and they probably lock down the White House it anyone violates it. I think as long as he continues to split his time between Mar-a-Lago and the White House, Trump is relatively safe.

If he starts doing more speaking tours, though, that might make him more vulnerable. There’s also a staggering amount of disorder and incompetence because of his attacks on federal workers and his terrible cabinet appointments, so I guess it’s possible he’s already opened himself up to security risks. Who knows.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How likely is it that Trump will be the first President assassinated since Kennedy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
It’s probably pretty low. The secret service was already caught with their pants down once when that guy took a shot at Trump over the summer, so they’re probably going to be on high alert for a while. On top of that, Trump is better protected as the President than a candidate, with access to the White House, Air Force One, the Beast (his Limo), etc. There are probably more people who want to take a shot at him than other Presidents, but I doubt it’s gonna happen.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Note: before tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

Why would I buy a device that I don’t really own, i.e. the manufacturer can pull the rug from under it at any time and render it completely useless?

Yeah, this is why I’m so fucking pissed about the lack of non-digital games. I understand that games have tons of updates, and that the idea of a physical game has been declining for years, but there was at least still a physical, 1.0 version of a Nintendo game I could buy and play on my Switch. If Nintendo no longer sells that product, they no longer have a product I want.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Note: before tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
I actually like Nintendo’s devices, though. Sony and Microsoft produce basically the same product every generation, but Nintendo usually tries something different. But $80 games with no physical option is fucking disgusting. I’m pretty sure they’ve decided that physical media is a threat to their abusive IP practices, and their going to finally destroy game preservation once and for all. This is the final straw for me; I’ll just pirate anything I want going forward.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most Americans think AI won’t improve their lives, survey says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
It didn’t even need to take someone’s job. A summary of an article or paper with hallucinated information isn’t replacing anyone, but it’s definitely making search results worse.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most Americans think AI won’t improve their lives, survey says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Maybe if a service isn’t ready to be used by the public you shouldn’t put it in every product you make.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most Americans think AI won’t improve their lives, survey says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Maybe that’s because every time a new AI feature rolls out, the product it’s improving gets substantially worse.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Note: before tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
I’m a big Nintendo apologist. I’ve argued in the past that their consoles are the only ones worth buying over a gaming PC (not including Steamdeck there), and while I have never defend their terrible IP practices, I have been willing to overlook them and continue buying their products. This shit is indefensible. The price
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why aren't all rooms holodecks?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
1. Energy. In TNG, the holodecks burn a lot of energy. Can’t imagine what would happen if you turned every room into one.
2. The holodeck isn’t a Tardis. The space inside the holodeck is an illusion created by the room. The room can make the space look infinite, and the floor can function as a hard-light treadmill that let’s you explore that infinite space, but the room still needs to be large enough to accommodate all the real-world things in it. That’s why they’re so large in TNG and Voyager. Holo-quarters would still need to be roughly the size of regular quarters.
3. Same problem with the bar. Sure, you could make anyone’s quarters look like Ten Forward, but if your quarters fit 3 people, that’s how many people can drink there.
4. The sickbay would still be essential because the problem isn’t medical equipment, it’s staff. Unless you’re going to have the medical staff running all over the ship making house calls, having that staff in a centralized location and having the crew come to them just makes more sense, especially in an emergency. Emergencies are also why that equipment should never be holographic. If the ship is under attack, the last thing you want is sickbay disappearing because of a phaser hit or having to turn off the medical equipment to power the sheilds.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Don’t panic, but an asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
That’s 0.9% more than the last time I checked. I know those are still really low odds, but we can hope…
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tough question⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Astrology daughter. NFT son will be bankrupt in your basement, no matter what. Astrology daughter might marry a rich guy.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the origin of aliens looking like humans? Why and when did it become the norm?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Yeah, that’s my thinking as well, although to be clear, I’m not saying that intelligent life would be humanoid, just that it’s the most reasonable real-world explanation I can come up with for why fictional aliens look human. I’m not an exobiologist, and I have no idea what the leading theories are on what intelligent life might look like. I’m just saying that, whenever I’m watching some sci-fi with a bunch of human-looking aliens, my go-to head cannon to explain it away is Convergent Evolution, and it at least feels like a reasonable explanation.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the origin of aliens looking like humans? Why and when did it become the norm?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
If you’re asking why it appears in our sci-fi, you were correct in assuming it was mostly about cheap costuming and special effects. If you’re asking for a general canonical reason for it, there isn’t one, but many sci-fi shows have come up with unique ones (for example, Star Trek had the Progenitors, a species of humanoids that seeded world with their DNA). If you’re looking for a possible real-world explanation that could account for it, Convergent Evolution might explain why intelligent species wind up being bipedal tetrapods.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
On this, we agree.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Frog's Gift⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
It also can’t be understated how much private corporations benefit from technology this research yields. We spent $25 billion ($175 billion in today’s money) on the Apollo programs alone, and NASA research has led to everything from cell phones and laptops to the rubber molding process used for sneakers. The DoD wasted a ton of money in the 80s on this new technology that involved getting computers to communicate with each other, and now we have the internet.

The government spends money in ways that could never be justified by cooperations, then the cooperations enrich themselves with that research and use the profits to lobby Congress for lower taxes and limited spending. It’s absolutely infuriating.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Nintendo went belly up today the retro community would have a field day⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Their track record on consoles is hit or miss because they don’t make the same product every generation like Sony and Microsoft. For every Wii and Switch, you get a Wii. U and Virtual Boy. They’re shitty with their IP, but hardware development is literally the best thing they do.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I’ve seen the person who posted this article, return2ozma, called a Russian troll account at least once a week since I joined Lemmy, so color me skeptical. Who knows, maybe you’re right, but if so, then you’re the instance that cried, “bot,” one too many times.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Yeah, but was it, though? Or was it full of people making legitimate criticisms of the Democratic Party only to get accused of being bots or told they thought, “both sides,” were the same? Because I know which of these two things I’ve seen more of in the last year.