shawn1122

@shawn1122@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨hol up⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This applies mostly to WASPs and Catholic imperialists, not sure if all Christians feel that way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times stands by article mentioning Chinese women small fingers. The paper says Apple engineers privately talked about this⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The original article says women. Though its doubtful that children weren’t also employed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times stands by article mentioning Chinese women small fingers. The paper says Apple engineers privately talked about this⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would hope a social studies teacher would understand the pitfalls of Western orientalism and Western cultures obsession with describing other groups as ‘its’ rather than as whole persons.

  But if we’re going to objectify people, why don’t we get real technical about it. Why not move manufacturing to other east Asian countries? Even outside of East Asia, you can find many countries with less labor protections and large populations where you could select for millions of people with small hands. Why China? Anyone who is being intellectually honest knows that hand size was not the central reason.

  If this is widely accepted then Western culture has a long way to go when it comes to facing its history of racial objectification. Because this sounds less like a rationale and more like modern phrenology presenting itself as business and engineering acumen.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times stands by article mentioning Chinese women small fingers. The paper says Apple engineers privately talked about this⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Young Chinese women have small fingers, and that has made them a valuable contributor to iPhone production because they are more nimble at installing screws and other miniature parts in the small device, supply chain experts said. In a recent analysis the company did to explore the feasibility of moving production to the United States, the company determined that it couldn’t find people with those skills in the United States, said two people familiar with the analysis who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

  nytimes.com/…/apple-iphone-trump-india-china.html

  They’re supposedly paraphrasing supply chain experts but they could definitely paraphrase better. It reads like a Reddit comment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tamil Nadu: 3 Dalit manual scavengers die cleaning septic tank without safety gear⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Japan is highly dependent on imports and is mainly a service economy, now struggling due to tariffs and other supply chain issues which are driving inflation a d hindering growth. India overtook Japan in GDP this past weekend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is the Fed quietly buying billions in bonds — and hoping nobody notices?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Think of quantitative easing like a stock buy back in a way.

  United Healthcare’s stock was plummeting and they recently did a buyback to stabilize it. The buy back stabilizes it by decreasing supply ie. the number of stocks in circulation. This is essentially a bandaid, ultimately they’re going to have to make some efforts to change their public perception to have a more ‘real’ bounceback. Or they’ll just wait until the recurring cycle of bad press for then slows down.

  Quantitative easing is an effort to decrease bond yields (the central bank creates new money to buy bonds from banks, decreasing the amount of bonds in circulation). Better bond yields make it easier to borrow money, whether you have a small business or its your mortgage rate.

  This is also a bandaid. Its used in situations like COVID, for example, with the anticipation that supply chain challenges will improve once lockdowns are eased.

  The problem here is that the disease isn’t a virus. Its an ideology that has taken root and uplifted conmen like Trump. No amount of quantitative easing can fix that and for the fed to respond this way can only really be interpreted as an act of desperation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tumult in U.S. Treasurys shows Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' might be disaster⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the big takeaway here is that American exceptionalism is over. America’s aura has gone from fading to faded.

  We are seeing bond yields go up and the value of the dollar go down, a rarity in our lifetimes. Typically when yields to up, the demand for US securities and, therefore, the US dollar goes up, increasing their value.

  The fact that demand is not increasing despite better yields points to investors having lost faith in the US government to pay back its debts. A tax and spending bill that adds 3.8 trillion dollars to the deficit over 10 years does not help that.

  We’re seeing more and more typically direct relationships become inverse relationship which really just point to one thing - people have lost faith in the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Capitalism Began Around The 16th Century⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It was more of a mercantilism for thee, capitalism for me mantra that describes the colonial period but the overall legacy belongs to capitalism.

  Leaves one to wonder though, did the bad guys win? Is this a dystopia in itself and we’re too conditioned to realize it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Some people have it worse⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s a lot more thats superficial about America if you keep looking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Some people have it worse⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The soon to be Chinese subsidiary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Some people have it worse⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Using ‘civilized’ in this context evokes a bit too much Western colonial brain rot for my tastes.

  India and Egypt are two very different countries geographically, culturally and politically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Does it bother him when you don’t respond? I don’t know this boys particular circumstances but Western culture has a mentorship crisis when it comes to young boys and men.

  You shouldn’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable but, as an introvert myself, I have come to learn that kinship sometimes means doing your own thing in the presence of others. This is really important to children since they want to feel like they’re part of something bigger.

  If he’s not expecting a response to everything and you’re OK with just being together I’d advocate for that. It might be healthy for both of you. Depends on your specific circumstances though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump cuts tariff on UK cars; American carmakers not happy about it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Good they should pressure their government for a similar exemption on Canada and Mexico.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK-US TRADE: “Caving into a bully is not something to be celebrated”, campaigners say⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The UK has not been in a strong financial position in terms of growth and investment since Brexit so I imagine he sees it as taking one for the team.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pakistan's Chinese-made jet brought down two Indian fighter aircraft, US officials say⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think he’s saying that BJP propoganda on social media is so ham fisted that, if Indian pilots are of a similar quality, the planes may have just fallen out of the sky.

  Pretty standard for a Western layperson’s idea of insightful analysis of geopolitical issues in Asia lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I see where you’re coming from but I think that line can be drawn by those with a moral compass, which I understand America is failing at right now.

  I truly believe most people can distinguish between threatening to bomb children and any of the examples you’ve listed but perhaps I’m giving people too much of a benefit of the doubt.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Bomb threats to local schools were also being sent via Proton.

  If they aren’t going to help deal with that then I can understand why turning them off and figuring out is the next best step.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Temporary blocking doesn’t seem unreasonable to me there. Perhaps even a longer term one if Swiss federal authorities are going to meddle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bros being bros⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  How did they find two dudes that look exactly the same?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI slop farms are churning out fake heartwarming videos about Trump figures.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Found it, for anyone reading don’t bother. It’s still images with an AI voiceover. I was hoping for half baked AI generated video.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI slop farms are churning out fake heartwarming videos about Trump figures.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Anyone have a link to the video? Looking for a good laugh.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨America is fucked⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This comment actually perfectly encapsulates how the US has got to the point that it’s at today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams says company targeted ads at teens based on their ‘emotional state’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah yes having to lick the boot of an autocrat with no freedom to dissent. That sure sounds like working to me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Switch 2 GameCube controller will only be offered to those who pre-order the console⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They must enter a unique switch serial number (that corresponds with inventory) to make the purchase? Don’t see why it has to be contigent on a subscription.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anthropic has developed an AI 'brain scanner' to understand how LLMs work and it turns out the reason why chatbots are terrible at simple math and hallucinate is weirder than you thought⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is what the ARC-AGI test by Chollet has also shows regarding current AI / LLMs. They have a tendency to approach problems with this trial and error method and can be extremely inefficient (in their current form) with anything involving abstract / deductive reasoning.

  Most LLMs do terribly at the test with the most recent breakthrough being with reasoning models. But even the reasoning models struggle.

  ARC-AGI is simple, but it demands a keen sense of perception and, in some sense, judgment. It consists of a series of incomplete grids that the test-taker must color in based on the rules they deduce from a few examples; one might, for instance, see a sequence of images and observe that a blue tile is always surrounded by orange tiles, then complete the next picture accordingly. It’s not so different from paint by numbers.

  The test has long seemed intractable to major AI companies. GPT-4, which OpenAI boasted in 2023 had “advanced reasoning capabilities,” didn’t do much better than the zero percent earned by its predecessor. A year later, GPT-4o, which the start-up marketed as displaying “text, reasoning, and coding intelligence,” achieved only 5 percent. Gemini 1.5 and Claude 3.7, flagship models from Google and Anthropic, achieved 5 and 14 percent, respectively.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sen. Schumer: 'My Job is to Keep the Left Pro-Israel'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence states the nation was founded on the “national and historic right of the Jewish people”

  Israel’s 2018 Basic Law constitutionally enshrined the state as the "nation-state of the Jewish people. " granting exclusive national self-determination to Jews, prioritize Jewish settlement as a “national value”, designate Hebrew as the sole official language (with Arabic demoted to “special status”), affirm Jerusalem as the capital, and guarantee Jewish immigration rights

  This may be why people conflate the two.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do i see so many americans obsessed with the concept of "this is a thing that [Ethnicity] does"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  US compartmentalizes based on race. It’s apparent in essentially all of the media they export to the rest of the world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do most Americans use an iPhone?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Eh you can achieve similar or greater privacy on a Android phone simply because it’s not locked down in the way an iPhone is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do most Americans use an iPhone?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Surely that’s not a uniquely American phenomenon.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do most Americans use an iPhone?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They used to innovate, no doubt. But their products provide absolutely terrible value now. Great resale, sure. But you’re overpaying 20-30% for the hardware you’re getting which is not the case on the Android side. The only thing iPhone universally does better is 1) video and 2) ecosystem (if all your products are Apple). The rest is tomaeto vs tomahto situation.