CombatWombat
@CombatWombat@feddit.online
- Comment on The world on Van der Grinten projection (2011) 4 days ago:
No because I was lying and have no idea what any of that means lol
- Comment on The world on Van der Grinten projection (2011) 4 days ago:
Well, I mean, of course you would want to avoid being either conformal or equal-area. As an experienced cartographer, I am both intimately aware of the technical meaning of both those terms, and their drawbacks in map composition.
- Comment on The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it 6 days ago:
Insolvency can’t hurt me, I’m an MMTist.
- Comment on What did people think dinosaur bones were before we officially recognised dinosaurs? 6 days ago:
The earliest known english-language account of a dinosaur bone is in Robert Plot’s 1677 The natural history of Oxford-shire: being an essay toward the natural history of England. This is what he says about what we now know as a megalosaurus thighbone:
There happily came to Oxford while I was writing of this, a living Elephant to be shown publickly at the ACT, An. 1676, with whose Bones . I compared ours; and found those of the Elephant not only of a different Shape, but also incomparably different to ours, though the Beast were very young and not half grown. If then they are neither the Bones of Horses, Oxen, nor Elephants, as I am strongly persuaded they are not . It remains, that (notwithstanding their extravagant Magnitude) they must have been the bones of Men or Women: Nor doth any thing hinder but they may have been so, provided it be clearly made out, that there have been Men and Women of proportionable Stature in all Ages of the World, down even to our own Days
The whole account is pretty interesting. He speculates about the origin of the bones and their medicinal uses and discusses the particulars of a few giants.
- Comment on Do I have to? Ok, fine... 2 weeks ago:
Oh of course🤦♂️
I was wondering when in the world that exchange rate would make sense. That’s definitely correct.
- Comment on Do I have to? Ok, fine... 2 weeks ago:
If anyone’s curious what happened to the translation here, the original Russian is abbreviated — the full phrase would be «мороженое в ассортименте» (ice cream in assortment) — but they abbreviated assortment and Russian doesn’t have articles so they use them when you wouldn’t expect. Also, this is most likely eastern Ukraine because they quote the prices in both hryvnia and roubles.
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to astronomy@mander.xyz | 0 comments
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Lots of things would happen, but the specifics wouldn’t much matter because there’d be no-one left to tell the tale afterwards.
- Comment on AI Translations Are Adding ‘Hallucinations’ to Wikipedia Articles 3 weeks ago:
There’s a capital strike on, and you can’t simply withhold capital or else it is put to use elsewhere so it has to be employed for enshittification.
- Comment on AI Translations Are Adding ‘Hallucinations’ to Wikipedia Articles 3 weeks ago:
If you used Google Translate previously for translations, they’ve switched out the backend for Gemini. Most of the existing translation tools have been destroyed and replaced with LLMs already.
- March could be the best month for the northern lights for nearly a decade — if the sun stays activewww.livescience.com ↗Submitted 3 weeks ago to astronomy@mander.xyz | 4 comments
- Comment on Sarcasm is a whitewash way to be mean. 4 weeks ago:
I think unfortunately we’ve lost a lot of that older meaning as it’s been crowded out by a more racially charged usage.
- Comment on Sarcasm is a whitewash way to be mean. 4 weeks ago:
The word sardonic used to mean what we now use sarcastic for — verbally ironic. Sarcasm comes from the Greek “to tear flesh, bite the lip in rage, sneer” and meant “bitterly cutting or caustic” when it first entered English. For me, although I understand that hypothetically you could have sarcasm that doesn’t have this inherently negative bent to it, the word still retains a fair bit of its original connotation for good reason.
- Comment on Should this be the year we finally try voting for other candidates? 4 weeks ago:
I dunno about your district, but we usually have some pretty good candidates through the DSA on our ballot: https://platform.dsausa.org/
- Comment on The 2026 Global Intelligence Crisis 4 weeks ago:
Also somewhat reassuring:
Higher margins increase retained earnings and investment capacity. If output rises and real GDP increases then by national income accounting identity something must be rising on the demand side: Consumption, investment, government spending, or net exports must be increasing (more here). A scenario in which productivity surges but aggregate demand collapses while measured output rises violates accounting identities.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to economics@lemmy.world | 1 comment
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to astronomy@mander.xyz | 1 comment
- Comment on The Macroeconomic Effects of Tariffs: Evidence From U.S. Historical Data 4 weeks ago:
Unsurprising findings, but particularly frustrating given the pro-tariff crowd continues to cite increased manufacturing activity and output as a benefit of tariffs.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to economics@lemmy.world | 1 comment
- Comment on FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn 4 weeks ago:
I’m not as quick as you. I got most of the way through article and was still wondering why X would expose a database of historical prompts to an llm for querying by law enforcement.
- Comment on FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn 4 weeks ago:
I mean, most llm makers work pretty hard to conceal the system prompt, and I have no idea why XAi give Grok access to a database of historical prompts. LLMs don’t have memories by default, and their inability to learn from past experiences is kind of a big stumbling point for a lot of folks. You can ask, but I doubt you’re likely to get anything other than a confabulation.
- Comment on FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn 4 weeks ago:
I’m not as quick as you. I got most of the way through article and was still wondering why X would expose a database of historical prompts to an llm for querying by law enforcement.
- Comment on FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn 4 weeks ago:
People commenting after only reading the headline and not the article is exactly the behavior I find irritating and distasteful about headline-related complaints.
- Comment on FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn 4 weeks ago:
I’m usually against complaints about poor headlines, but this one is completely factually incorrect? The FBI didn’t interact with Grok here literally at all? They issued a search warrant to X to get their logs?
- Comment on Mistranslation Porn 4 weeks ago:
Usually I roll my eyes pretty heavily at the WhateverPorn names for non-pornographic communities, but I suspect this one’s gonna be accurate more often than not.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
My understanding is that it’s quite the opposite — a racist would be less likely to shout a slur because they don’t feel the social stigma as keenly.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
It’s not a coincidence, as far as I understand. The tics are involuntary, but they are specifically due to intrusive thoughts about what the most inappropriate thing to say right now would be. The blame here mostly lies with institutional racism for making that slur so awful; were it not available, I assume his tic would have focused on another terrible word, say “fuck”.
- Comment on Singing is just talking with more tone variations. 4 weeks ago:
If you’re comparing freestyle rapping is this still the case? What about reciting a memorized poem? (I agree with you, I’m just curious if you know where the boundaries are because I sure don’t)
- Comment on Also, in my state, all the drivers are the worst 4 weeks ago:
My condolences for your loss.
- Comment on Also, in my state, all the drivers are the worst 4 weeks ago:
Capricious is my favorite adjective, rather than trying to ascribe mental disorders to global systems. If you’re asking regarding a specific human, you should talk to a psychiatrist — if it is disruptive to their life, it may be a sign of borderline personality disorder.