Let Google Decide. When “personhood” is decided by the Big Five.
Ireland’s big school secret: how a year off-curriculum changes teenage lives.
Ghoti
I don’t care when my “heroes” do fucked up stuff to an extent because I don’t expect those I think of as awesome in some way to be amazing in all ways. No human can be that. It’s not a condition that they are 24/7 saints for me to think they’re great.
Obviously, some behaviors are intolerable. But particularly for artists, they often swim against the current. It’s difficult — nearly impossible — for that to be true in just the area where they make great art.
Seems not so difficult to understand to me.
Invisible text that AI chatbots understand and humans can’t? Yep, it’s a thing.
Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics Of Magic Windows.
Dark matter does not exist and the universe is 27 billion years old, study claims.
Walgreens to close 1,200 stores over the next three years.
Middle-class homeowners are increasingly squeezed by housing costs.
Tech Deck
SSL certificate lifetimes are going down. Dates proposed. 45 days by 2027.
Goddamn this is fucking idiotic. Creates a huge amount of hassle and work for absolutely zero increase in security for anyone anywhere ever. And many devices and components that use certs, updating cannot be automated.
Also, the advice of “just set up a private Certificate Authority then” is also tremendously clueless. I have done this and it’s very hard. It’s out of the realm of most tech people’s skills, even good ones. And it requires maintenance. It’s not a “for free” thing.
The whole tech industry is full of clownish losers.
TVB
My guess is that in moderation reality TV has no effect either way. Like most things. Some of the dumbest and some of the smartest humans I’ve ever met have been fans of reality TV shows of various stripes.
If anything, in small doses they are likely mildly palliative but it’d be hard to measure. And very individual-specific (I find them all annoying and they make me low-level angry).
In large doses, of course, yes reality TV shows make you dumber if for no other reason is that time devoted to one activity cannot be used for anything else.
Choices
I’d posit that war is always atrocity, but sometimes it’s better than the other choices on offer. Pacifism has no answers, alas — it just means that those willing to dominate with force of arms and threat of violence do so with no consequences. The same destruction and genocide occur, just with no opposition even in principle.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about meta-evolution and the idea that evolution itself is constrained by the base instantiation of the universe to produce creatures that in individualized form tend to be war-like when combined with the ability to accrue resources that are durable over time.
Still pondering that one.
Thinking Groupily
I do not do well in groups and do not like being part of them. Groups inevitably lead to groupthink and I want nothing to do with that.
I recognize that groups are an unavoidable part of life but doesn’t mean I have to like it. And groups generally end up having issues with me because I’m always the one saying, “I know everyone here thinks that, but you’re all wrong.”
That does seem to be my assigned role in life.
Insurance ‘nightmare’ unfolds for Florida homeowners after back-to-back hurricanes.
How Everyone Got Lost in Netflix’s Endless Library.
The GOP assault on election integrity has already begun.
Scale of Chinese Spying Overwhelms Western Governments.
Mystery Drones Swarmed a U.S. Military Base for 17 Days. The Pentagon Is Stumped. Chinese, guaranteed.
Contam
Why are preferences okay until I mention tattoos?
Because after people have sullied themselves and their essence with tattoos, they still expect you to look at them the same way, to feel the same attraction as you would to uncontaminated skin.
You can and should be able to do whatever silly-ass thing you want to your own body. But no one owes you attraction after you choose to defile yourself.
Filtered for time and false memory.
The Little-Known Factor Driving up Housing Costs: Dirty Money.
Young men’s economic prospects are shifting, along with their politics.
Even a Single Bacterial Cell Can Sense the Seasons Changing.
Should we be thinking about luck differently?
AI Is Threatening the Social Safety Net.
Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah.
Russia’s First Secret Influence Campaign: Convincing the U.S. to Buy Alaska.
She Shot Well
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And Elon Musk (as odious as he is) does “nothing.” Right. He hired Gwynne Shotwell and gave her enough money and space to do what she do, which might be the greatest hiring decision in all history.
All Over
Damn, what cracksmoking doucheclown made this abomination:
That is appallingly bad design.
Personal Space
I’ve noticed this when I’ve interacted with Gen Z and with younger Millennials. Used to be, my social skills would’ve been woefully sub-par at the same age they are. But now their social capability is so terrible I would’ve been a social butterfly comparatively.
It’s shocking to realize that those below the age of ~32 just 100% do not know how to talk to anyone in person — not each other, not teachers, not older people. No one. It’s no wonder they have such difficulty with dating and are so prudish. The world of other humans right there in front of you must be absolutely terrifying to them. We have done fucked up, but I am not sure what to do about it (banning smartphones would be a good start).
Conv
The worst thing to happen to email was attempting to make it be in “conversation” mode. Can’t find a goddamn thing that way.
Norm B
Being dangerously thin is back in. Is the body-positivity era officially over?
God, let’s hope so. It wasn’t about “body positivity” in reality. It was just an excuse for unhealthily obese women to excuse their behavior and lack of self-discipline.
Anyway, to people like this “dangerously thin” just means “normal BMI.” It’s sad what we’ve become.