BillyClark

@BillyClark@piefed.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epstein details scrubbed from Mandelson’s Wikipedia page by shady paid editor— As the then-ambassador came under fire, an anonymous user tried to downplay his history of support for Jeffrey Epstein⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I have wondered the same about scammers. Like, if their mother knew they were going to do that with their life, she’d probably regret all of that wasted effort raising them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why didn't the mother just use her private doctor on her yacht?⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Similarly, if you’re accused of a crime and you’re poor, you might not be able to afford bail money, so you’ll be stuck in jail and you’ll inevitably lose your job, ruining your life, regardless of whether you’re guilty or innocent.

  Meanwhile if you’re rich and an Epstein co-conspirator pedophile who raped and sex trafficked children, the government won’t even arrest you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Episode] Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord • Okiraku Ryoushu no Tanoshii Ryouchi Bouei - Episode 6 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Was Van lecherous in previous episodes? When he started talking to himself about that lady’s tits, it felt out of character, but maybe I just forgot.

  I also wonder about episodes like this, in general. I’m sure it costs extra money to animate a dragon fight, but it still wasn’t animated very well. And they did that old bullshit where the characters are like, “We’re in mortal danger and have mere seconds to act, so let’s sit here and talk about it for a few minutes before we do anything.”

  The armored lizard defense wasn’t perfect, but it was far better than this dragon nonsense. It feels like you shouldn’t spend extra money on fight animation if the result is going to be worse than normal.

  Man, I have a few anime that I watch on Wednesdays, and all of the episodes were respectively the worst episodes of their seasons this week.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  it’s important to have verifiable studies to cite in arguments for policy, law, etc.

  It’s also important to have for its own merit. Sometimes, people have strong intuitions about “obvious” things, and they’re completely wrong. Without science studying things, it’s “obvious” that the sun goes around the Earth, for example.

  I don’t need a formal study to tell me that drinking 12 cans of soda a day is bad for my health.

  Without those studies, you cannot know whether it’s bad for your health. You can assume it’s bad for your health. You can believe it’s bad for your health. But you cannot know. These aren’t bad assumptions or harmful beliefs, by the way. But the thing is, you simply cannot know without testing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Exiled Cheating Magician Enjoys an Unrestrained Second Life | Anime Announced (Teaser Visual)⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  From the title, it seems like this won’t be very original, but I usually enjoy these types of anime.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US gave Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach agreement to end war, Zelenskyy says⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Putin’s replacement might be crazier than he is… But I still think they’d take the chance to blame Putin for the ill-conceived war and cut their losses.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Silver linings?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  One of the things that’s generally effective when I feel nausea is to wipe my face with a cool cloth. I imagine that spraying water on your face might do similar.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Onii-Chan is watching you 😩⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Although I speak some Japanese, I am not an expert in Japanese. I have never heard anybody say nii-kun. It’s a common failing of people in my situation to think that because they personally haven’t heard it, that it doesn’t exist, so I’m not going to say that, but even if it does exist, I don’t think -kun would be used.

  “-kun” like you said indicates closeness and familiarity, but it also is commonly used for a business subordinate. Like, if you were at work, your boss might refer to you as “pivot-kun”, even if you weren’t that close. I don’t think Big Brother could ever be seen as a subordinate.

  With my limited knowledge, if they wanted to use a Japanese word and not an English loanword, I think they’d use aniki or maybe ani-ue (although I’ve only heard these words in anime, I think people might actually still use aniki? It sounds like a Yakuza sort of word to me). These convey a respect that I think would be necessary for the mental image of Big Brother.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Onii-Chan is watching you 😩⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The primary reason that I’d put forward is that Japanese people place a lot of importance on social hierarchy, to the point that even between twins, it’s important to know which is the older sibling. Because it’s used in everyday conversation and in referring to one another (although not quite as much with twins, I just brought that up for emphasis).

  The point is that the Japanese version of these words are used a lot more and have a lot of extra meaning compared to the English phrase “Big Brother”. So, it’s actually a worse fit. Japanese people use enough English loanwords that they probably understand the English phrase, anyways. So, the meaning gets through without the extra unintended baggage from the translation.

  It’s one of the many pitfalls of translation. Often, there are words that mean “the same thing”, but they still aren’t the right words because either the extra connotations in the original language or the extra connotations in the target language can throw off the translation.

  I think the Japanese translation is fortunate that, in this case, the Japanese language already has so many English loanwords… although I’m not sure whether that was exactly the same case when the book was first translated. It was published in 1948, I think. My recollection is that the English loanword boom started after WW2, so that would be somewhat contemporary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Taste the flavor⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  On second thought, maybe I don’t want tastebuds just inside my asshole.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Onii-Chan is watching you 😩⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  “-chan” is a diminutive suffix that indicates affection when used. These two factors mean it would never be used in the context of Big Brother.

  Even with little knowledge, you should at least come up with alternatives like nii-san, onii-san, onii, nii-sama, etc. Those still wouldn’t work well. I’d think that a lot of people would also think of aniki, which is getting closer. But it’s definitely the best option to just to what they actually did and just use the English “big brother” like a loan word.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Top of the world, ma⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There are a lot of vegans and vegetarians who don’t make it their raison d’etre, so I’m sure there have been some who climbed Everest in the past, even if we don’t know about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Man posts his incorrect opinion online⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Japan is a shoes-off country, but they often have slippers that they wear indoors. They just change their shoes like Mr. Rogers, but with less singing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Episode] Sentenced to Be a Hero • Yuusha Kei ni Shosu: Choubatsu Yuusha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku - Episode 5 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Raise the fucking drawbridge. That’s why drawbridges exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨CEO of Palantir Says AI Means You’ll Have to Work With Your Hands Like a Peasant⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Whatever bad shit I want to say about Henry Ford, at least he understood the basic idea that people could only spend the amount of money that they have or make. That’s one of the things he’s famous for is that his factory workers could buy their own Model Ts.

  We now live in a stupid reality where the world is controlled by rich people who see others as slaves and who are wanting to keep slave labor in perpetuity, even when the labor doesn’t need to exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨CEO of Palantir Says AI Means You’ll Have to Work With Your Hands Like a Peasant⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Assume for a moment that AI really was taking all of these types of jobs, which by the way, almost certainly includes CEOs. It would only be a matter of time before robots take those other jobs he’s talking about.

  A normal human of normal intelligence would see that and conclude that people simply wouldn’t have to work anymore. And that therefore, everyone should have their basic necessities taken care of by their governments.

  People would be free to do whatever they want, whether it be “humanities” work or creating things or whatever. We’re no longer constrained by the fact that our lives depend on our usefulness in jobs to the ruling class.

  Only a member of that ruling class would see themselves as indispensable and others as slave labor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨One out of ten Ferengis recommend Colgate⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  How could you say anything nice about his teeth? He obviously hasn’t even been using his tooth sharpener.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Florida House Bill 1471, which broadens the definition of terrorist and calls for a domestic terrorist organization list, passed the Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee by a vote of 14-3,⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Domestic Terrorist Organization Criteria To designate an organization as a domestic terrorist organization, the Chief of Domestic Security must find that:

  • The organization is based in or operates in the State of Florida or in the United States.
  • The organization is engaging in terrorist activities that either involve illegal acts dangerous to human life, or that are intended to:
    • Intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
    • Influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;

  I think this technically labels most corporations as domestic terrorist organizations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What kind of stupid rule is that?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  “After seeing you enjoy good food as it was intended, I don’t think I want to continue this. Everyone knows food must only be eaten after you upload pictures of it to Instagram and get a certain number of interactions.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Please stop⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I have heard that beached marine mammals are often too sick to swim properly and that rather than pushing them back in, it’s better to call wildlife rescue for advice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Draw!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It was part of the paperwork requested by the person who arranged my loan and there were no follow up questions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Draw!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I once had to “explain the gap in my CV” when applying for a loan. And apparently, “I didn’t feel like working for those 6 months,” wasn’t a good enough explanation. Even though I think literally everybody personally understands the concept.

  I ended up saying that I spent the time taking care of my parents, since I did spend some of that time taking care of them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m still surprised that all of the January 6 insurrectionists could just storm the capitol building without being shot. They were breaking into the main building that had all of our lawmakers in it at the time, and only one of those morons was shot. Only the stupidest one. The queen of morons.

  And did you notice what happened after that idiot was shot and killed? Nobody else tried to go through that window.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They'll tell you⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Exactly. It’s sad, but in America, if you say something to a cop, and the cop, for example, “misremembers” and says that you confessed to a crime, you can be in hot water. If you simply don’t speak to a cop, then it’s more difficult for the cop to “misremember”.

  That’s an extreme example, and it’s getting less likely with cops wearing more bodycams, but there’s simply no reason to take the risk of talking to a cop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Victorian Baby Yeet Machine⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t go for this. Even in Victorian times, the catapult was outdated technology.

  Now, then, if it were a trebuchet, then you’d really see how far that baby could go.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wrong number... hopefully⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh my, I hope he didn’t get rid of my private collection.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wrong number... hopefully⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You can tell from the background that this isn’t my attic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anyone?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The admins vary by server.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consider the shareholders!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not particularly funny in the first place.

  If a sidewalk is overgrown by grass and then people walk on the grass to make a desire path, that would be more obvious, I think.

  I’m just saying this would be like that. There’s a place where people would want to walk if only there was a path there, but there is a path. It’s obstructed by snow.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consider the shareholders!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a desire path on top of a normal path.