exasperation

@exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨*confused flatfish noises*⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Plus evolutionary history shows plenty of examples of animals switching from pure carnivore to pure herbivore to omnivores in between. All birds are descended from a common carnivorous ancestor, but plenty of birds today subsist mostly on seeds or fruit.

  If there is a lot of available biomass to be eaten, nature will find a way and some animal is going to fill that niche. Many of the folivores (herbivores specializing in digesting leaves) that descended from carnivores have to deal with the low nutrient/calorie density of their foods by just eating a lot of it, and have varying levels of microbial symbiosis for helping with that digestion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stretch marks⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Dude knows ball

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Might not be efficient, but at least it... Uhhh, wait, what good does it provide again?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Does that actually add up, though?

  Google released stats recently that the median Gemini prompt consumes about 0.24 watt hours of electricity.

  For humans performing knowledge based labor, how many prompts is that worth per hour? Let’s say that the average knowledge worker is about as productive as one good prompt every 5 minutes, so 12 per hour or 96 per 8-hour workday.

  Let’s also generously assume that about 25% of the prompts’ output are actually useful, and that the median is actually close to the mean (in real life, I would expect both to be significantly worse for the LLM, but let’s go with those assumptions for now).

  So on the one hand, we have a machine doing 384 prompts (75% of which are discarded), for 92 watt hours of energy, which works out to be 80 kilocalories.

  On the other hand, we have a human doing 8 hours of knowledge work, probably burning about 500 calories worth of energy during that sedentary shift.

  You can probably see that the specific tasks can be worked through so that some classes of workers might be worth many, many LLM prompts, and some people might be worth more or less energy.

  But if averages are within an order of magnitude, we should see that plenty of people are still more energy efficient than the computers. And plenty aren’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sensory issues⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a joke about Tylenol during pregnancy causing autism, a ridiculous claim made by Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sensory issues⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t say it’s all that “nonstandard.” The word “loud” is often used to mean distracting or attention-grabbing in a visual context, so extending it to other senses doesn’t seem like that far of a leap.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The less complicated life of a male⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re talking about a “large patch of psoriasis” that is apparently always on your skin and don’t know the first thing about cleaning and moisturizing products for your hair and skin, it might be worth exploring whether your psoriasis is aggravated by certain substances (including your hair touching your skin) and can be mitigated by consciously avoiding certain products/ingredients.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The less complicated life of a male⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Are you talking about Dr Bronns, which also comes with large amounts of reading material printed all over the bottle?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Following your dreams⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Attention seeking and validation seeking are baked into human personalities to varying degrees, and plenty of behavior predating social media (and even the internet) was motivated by those tendencies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is lemmy dying?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re making the common mistake of believing that newcomers are somehow dumber than the ones who have been here a while.

  No, Lemmy/piefed has a deep user base of people knowledgeable about Linux, programming, Star Wars, and a few other topics, but plenty of other topics still leave a lot to be desired.

  For example, I’ve noticed that Lemmy’s userbase is probably below the internet average at picking up on satire and sarcasm.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Radon⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It describes something going to a location, but not what you do.

  Going to that location is a much bigger part of the astronaut job than it is any other job you’ve listed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Radon⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Go to space

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's been downhill from that day ⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  In 2001? As I remember that song didn’t become a dominant Christmas song until Love Actually came out in 2003, and still took a few years before it became the single most popular Christmas song on the radio, first reaching number 1 in 2019.

  As of this picture nobody (including Mariah Carey) had any idea what that song would become.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  some can be toxic if you dont prepare it correctly though right?

  This is true of many different types of foods.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Screw your zodiac sign, tell me...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It was just a dominant brand of dishware in the U.S.

  Corning, one of the world leaders in glass manufacturing and materials science, figured out how to make thin tempered glass that was lightweight, very durable, resistant to thermal shock, and safe to use in microwaves, dishwashers, and up to medium temperature ovens (350°F/175°C is the manufacturer recommended max). It became the dominant dishware brand in the U.S. as a result, for “everyday” use.

  Personally I don’t like the heat transfer characteristics (poor insulator which means hot food makes the dish hot to the touch) and don’t mind thicker plates/bowls for most situations. But I can see why they became immensely popular, especially for families with kids.

  Side note, Corning spun off its consumer products division in 1991, so the company that makes the Gorilla Glass in basically everyone’s cell phones is now technically different from the company that made all these kitchen dishes, even if they were once part of the same corporation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stop stressing my GPU and start hiring artists⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  aight this scene takes place in Mexico so lemme color grade it very Mexican, but also it’s a flashback to the 50’s so I’m gonna dial down the color saturation and digitally add some film grain

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I couldn’t imagine putting in the effort to even try to be attractive and build a connection with someone else, much less in a way that I’d have to hide from my wife and kids.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I handle it just fine now, but I did lay some groundwork before kids to make sure my life was going to continue to be easy even with the added responsibility of parenting:

  • Insignificant commute. I can leave my house and be at my desk at the office in about 10 minutes, even during rush hour, because the bike lanes still flow efficiently.
  • Small home. I don’t want to fuck around with house maintenance or even cleaning up around the house any more than is absolutely necessary, so I don’t have excess rooms in the house and don’t have big spaces. I also don’t fuck with yard work so I have only a small patio with a few planters for a modest garden.
  • Flexible career that I actually like. I have a decent chunk of work to do in any given week, but most of it can be done on my own schedule, so that I can start my day late or end my day early as needed, so long as I can find the time elsewhere to fill in as needed. This did take some work to find a career that I like and that actually complements my strengths (several complete resets in my 20’s and 30’s, including going to law school as an older student), and then advancing in that field long enough to where I just have credibility to get things done without other people supervising me. I do work more than 50 hours per week fairly regularly, but I largely do it on my terms.
  • Money. My wife and I both earn more than average, and we were already rich before we had kids. That gave the flexibility to do things like take unpaid leave for each kid being born, paying for childcare when they were young, grabbing takeout on days when time is tight, etc.
  • Social support network. We have some family nearby, and they can help in a pinch (and we in turn help them as necessary). Our neighborhood social group is amazing, with a lot of other parents and similarly aged kids who can provide the social and emotional support for navigating the very real challenges of parenting. We don’t feel like we’re doing things alone, and we have a village. Many of these relationships predate parenting, too, so in a sense we knew that we had that ecosystem of friends and family to continue to grow with (even if we wouldn’t have been able to predict in advance exactly which friendships would thrive and which would wither after kids, we had the baseline to be able to be flexible with that).

  There were tradeoffs, to be sure. We were older than average when we had kids, and that might translate into lower energy levels for each stage of childhood, and may eventually mean that we get to enjoy less overlapping time as adults. We live in a small place so we do need to basically leave the house regularly so that our kids don’t get bored, and that’s more of a challenge in the winter when outdoor spaces aren’t all that pleasant. During COVID, while working 100% remotely, being close to the office wasn’t all that much of a perk.

  And we got lucky on other things. Our children are healthy and (mostly) well behaved, so we don’t have to worry as much about a lot of things other parents have to deal with. We also really get along with our own parents, so there aren’t challenging dynamics with the grandparents/in laws.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  even single

  It’s worth pointing out that coupling up often buys *more" leisure time, at least before kids. Many household tasks benefit from volume where doubling the output doesn’t actually double the work to be done (cooking, laundry) or where combining households basically consolidates two tasks into one (bills, cleaning, home maintenance).

  I didn’t have all that much free time when I was single, but those dual income/no kids years were glorious.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The height of sophistication: the 1994 McDonald's manager collection⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Dan Flashes Mcdonalds is a very aggressive store. I mean, you walk by a store and you see 50 guys who look just like me fighting over very complicated shirts, you go in. Yes, you do. You go in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel like a buffet would fix this⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  physically uncomfortable

  such an unnatural position

  Have you considered that he’s been standing with his shoulders rotated forward for most of his life, and that his feeble body falls right into this position, rather than a neutral position where he’d have to expend strength standing up straight with a strong looking torso?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨He makes a great point⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t understand any dog barks

  That’s obviously false. Any dog owner knows when their dog is begging for help getting something out of reach or being let in/out of a gate, which barks mean “hey someone’s at the door” or “squirrel” and which yelps mean pain. Beyond that, growls and body language can communicate quite a bit, too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the catalyst that actually causes (financial) bubbles to burst?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The big players in AI aren’t highly leveraged

  It’s not traditional leverage but the recent deals being announced where the AI companies are raising money from Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, AMD, Oracle, etc. and paying it back in stock or purchase commitments have a certain circular bootstrappy notion to them. The formulas for the valuations rely on feedback loops that are less stable and might create runaway feedback conditions at the slightest hiccup.

  In any highly capital intensive business, you always run the risk that the thing you build is worth less than the cost it took to build it. And when that happens, collapses can happen pretty quickly, as everyone invested in these companies rushes towards the offramp.

  I can think of a few catalysts that could trigger that initial realization that the thing made isn’t actually worth the cost to build it:

  • A new model comes out from a competitor that was cheaper to build and almost as good. (Deepseek reminded everyone that this might happen.)
  • New money stops coming in and the companies building things have to tighten their belts. This could be driven by a failure to monetize as much as previously modeled, so that the value of the company itself is questioned.
  • Some kind of legal flaw threatens the entire foundation of some expensive models.
  • Some kind of technical flaw causes one company’s flagship model to lose the race against other companies.
  • Some key personnel are incapacitated in a way that robs the company of its momentum (this almost happened with the board of directors revolt at OpenAI).
  • Something else I haven’t thought of.

  But once a hiccup happens, something built on so many self-reinforcing loops is less resilient against the unknown, the chaos of the real world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Always question those who are the "teachers"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You just mixed being strong with being fat.

  Strong people can look fat. Powerlifters, strongmen, shot putters, football linemen, and other athletes where really high strength are important tend to carry a lot of body fat, too.

  Fat doesn’t mean strong, but very strong very often means “fat” looking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm blue ba da ba da dee da ba dieee⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s even funny the way the parent comment described it: a female town right next to the regular town.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Great Depression: Part Deux⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s more of a BYO protein meal kit, with shelf stable seasoning+carb in a box, where you’re expected to add your own protein.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Great Depression: Part Deux⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Canned green beans are great. I don’t care how many fancy meals I eat, there’s always gonna be a place for that nostalgic flavor.

  And canned corn is basically my preferred method of adding corn to soups.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨#environmentalist⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You can release some of the stuck on flavors from silicone by heating it in the oven to 250°F/120°C for 20-30 minutes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Great Depression: Part Deux⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a very high confidence in the statistical significance, but a relatively low effect (in that the difference between eating cured meats every day and eating no cured meats ever has roughly a 1% chance of making a difference in cancer incidence).

  Basically, about 4% of people who never eat cured meats get cancer in the GI tract (from throat to stomach to colorectal) at some point in their lifetimes, whereas people who eat cured meats every day get cancer in the GI tract about 5% of the time. On the one hand, that’s like a 20% increase in cancer risk, but on the other hand, that makes a difference to only about 1% of the population.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This man is suffering⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is in no way condoning the practice, only describing why it happens, but a lot of dudes actually derive some kind of pleasure or satisfaction at knowing they’ve made someone else uncomfortable. That motivation generally steers them towards in-person interactions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fact⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Look at the video of her running, posted on September 29. A video posted on September 27 also shows short clips of her standing or walking or sitting with knees bent, showing that her femurs and tibias are proportional length. There’s a video called rapture prep posted on September 22 that includes a thumbnail that is a side shot with her knees bent, showing the ratio of femur to tibia.

  I think it’s a normal proportioned short person whose camera angles tend to lengthen her upper body and shorten her lower body. And maybe a preference for high waisted pants that may trick the eye into thinking the hip hinge is higher than it is.