What stores do you miss the most?
Borders. It was far better than Barnes & Noble as chains go because the people who worked there actually knew about books, and cared about them.
Also, in the store café they had the best mocha freeze thing that was fuckin’ glorious. I still reminisce sometimes about how good that concoction was.
Huge russian assault of 14 motorbikes was repelled by 30 OMBR. Result – 16 dead occupants.
Motorcycle assault in broad daylight. You gotta be fucking kidding me. A recipe for victory that is not.
My next “smart” book: Space Vehicle Maneuvering, Propulsion, Dynamics and Control: A Textbook for Engineers by Ranjan Vepa.
That’s gonna be a hard one.
Degrowth is a horror show. Let’s build stuff. A lot of it.
It is a FUCKING INSANE idea that when a country decides to invade another one, that the invaded country should allow it to happen, and just surrender to preserve life and property. Most often (as with Russia attempting to conquer Ukraine) the invasion is for the purpose of genocide, theft and destruction. It seems, though, that Russia supporters are the only ones spouting that sort of nonsense these days. And of course they do not claim the same thing about the native people of North America — that is, no one is saying that they should’ve just meekly surrendered to the British, Spanish et al. and hoped for the best.
Clownish hypocrites, every single one of them. Russia also wishes to take Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and most of all, Poland. Should that just be allowed? That’s all good? Those countries should just go ahead and surrender now? Jesus Fucking Christ. Also, if China decides it wants North America, we should just say, “OK, we surrender?” That just allows anyone who plays by jungle rules to do whatever they want. Is that really a world we want to live in. I. Do. Fucking. Not. How can anyone’s brain get this broken?
Not that long ago, Russia got what it wanted in Ukraine and this happened.
The idea that the minute any country acts hostile to another one, the country experiencing the hostile actions should just expose their belly is, again, FUCKING INSANE.
Today, my dad got a phone call no parent ever wants to get. He heard me tell him I was in a serious car accident, injured, and under arrest for a DUI and I needed $30,000 to be bailed out of jail.
But it wasn't me. There was no accident. It was an AI scam.
— Jay Shooster (@JayShooster) September 28, 2024
Tons of people on Reddit (et al.) say this is impossible. But in actuality, it has been possible for a few years now. There’s only going to be more of this as AI gets cheaper and better.
Inside me, there are two wolves.
Both need a space laser.
Peter Thiel said somewhere that the age of AI will favor those with strong social skills over those who are great at math. I reluctantly tend to agree with that, for various reasons.
The reality is that AI is only going to get better, even if you don’t believe in the Yudkowskian paperclip maximizer scenario (I do not; at least not for 300-500 years). We are merely in the early stages now. Already, AI is better at many things than 80% of people. In 3-7 years, AI will be better at even more things and beat 95% of people in those areas.
That’s true even if AI is currently overhyped (which it is). No, it won’t be useful in all areas and in some areas it will hardly be useful at all. But the reality is that most people are little better most of the time than a next-word predictor and AI will be replacing the majority of them. For instance, there’s not a single interaction I’ve had with Microsoft Azure support that a modern LLM could not have handled in a superior manner. And AI will of course also replace people in areas where it doesn’t actually work but an MBA thinks it does.
So that should be something.
Goddamn, I do not want my country fighting Russia in Poland in 2032 and China in the South China Sea at the same time. We must do everything we can to prevent that. Trump has said he’ll roll over for Putin. Not sure why anyone is unclear about that.
We should’ve bought Greenland. It’s always nice to have one or two of them in reserve.
Regardless of why Jeri Ryan was added to the cast of Voyager, as an actor she was the best part of the show. The eps focused on her were better than all the rest, and she exhibited more range than the rest of the cast except perhaps Katherine Mulgrew (Janeway).
I couldn’t find it on YouTube and it’s been twenty years since I watched it, but there was one episode where Seven was talking about her difficulty in integrating back into human society after the trauma of being assimilated into the Borg and then the further shock of having to leave that behind and adapt to a now-foreign culture. It was just perfect and heartbreaking. Jeri did a lot with a little and I always appreciated how much she gave to what could’ve been just a trivial eye candy part.
Unfortunately, she helped elect Obama by accident. She didn’t mean to, so I don’t hate her for it.
They were drawn to ‘Old Florida.’ Now they live in the new hurricane alley.
U.S. agency calls for urgent action on Boeing 737 rudder systems.
Better privacy can be one click away. Google and Apple won’t allow it.
America’s Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind.
Tiny Hippos And Elephants Once Roamed Cyprus, Until Humans Arrived.
Lina Khan Doesn’t Need to Be Confirmed Again.
The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it.
Your cells are dying. All the time.
US is on track to set a new record for homeless people with over 650K living on the streets.
Once again: Imports do not subtract from GDP.
America is becoming less “woke.”
Why Kamala Harris Wants to Stockpile Minerals You’ve Probably Never Heard Of. These aren’t even uncommon minerals?
Europe’s Quest to Rearm Runs Into Red Tape, Lack of Cash—and Meditation.