SkoomaDentist
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User ID: 84
That's because Europe hasn't had a US style batshit insane anti-abortion movement outside small rare niches. Meaningful opposition to abortion has been almost purely from catholic conservatives where the dynamics have been different and that faction has fairly decisively lost the battle. The result is that abortion is viewed as a practical health issue where the de facto status is what matters instead of what the official wording is. So you have things like Germany's "prohibited in theory but in practise entirely legal" where the nominal prohibition is kept due to a technicality and as a way to allow conservatives to signal "morally appropriate behavior".
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
No, I’m explaining why people in Germany and Europe overall consider that state as ”Abortion is legal.”. There is no meaningful group trying to ban abortion and thus no opposite group pushing for equally ridiculous policy in the other direction. Then it becomes a boring matter for medical professionals and ethics theoreticists to debate over 12 vs 16 weeks. You can’t run up furor over those sorts of numbers, particularly when people are just going to look at neighbouring countries with very similar rules.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
Why would the Russians blow up their own pipeline that they control?
Because Putin benefits from sowing confusion among Europeans. He also gives a signal that Russia can do the same to any other pipelines or cables in the sea.
What's best for Russia has long been irrelevant here. Putin goes with what's best for his personal aims and nobody in power dares to go against him (at least yet).
SkoomaDentist
3mo ago
The claim that has no proof (beyond marketing speak) is that they are the same thing. I don't believe the claim and the evidence doesn't show anything to support the claim as opposed to just skipping the text encoder and talking directly to the actual image generator in its native format.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
All that is trivially shown false by how LLMs persistently fail at the most basic mathematical problems as soon as solving those would require understanding instead of just stringing words together. They are very efficient bullshit generators but to claim they "understand" anything is a massive exaggeration.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
Europe's geographic connectivity with MENA, SSA and to some extent South Asia means that pressures will be greater on Europe.
It should be said that this does not inherently mean a failure to stem immigration. Russia has a huge land border but AFAIK doesn't have a meaningful illegal immigrant problem. Guessing the reasons for that are left as an exercise to the reader.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
The motive part of it gets much easier when you stop thinking in terms of 'Russia' and start thinking in terms of 'Vladimir Putin'.
I don't understand why so many people ignore this. The whole war on Ukraine makes next to no sense for Russia but much more sense for Putin himself.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
Yes, three of the explosions were near the powertransfer cable between Sweden and Poland. I haven't heard anything of damage or if it is intact since the initial reports that it was close to the explosions. But it is vulnerable infrastructure.
Russia also has history of doing this before. They cut the fiber optic cable between Svalbard and Norway "for the lulz" (iow, to send a message / test their capabilities).
SkoomaDentist
7mo ago
Also true of music
There's been very very little of worthwhile music made since the mid to late 90s outside metal, some niche genres (which don't include so-called "indie", anything related to EDM or what most people call "electronic music") and legacy artists who are now at or beyond retirement age.
This is a hill I'm willing to die on.
SkoomaDentist
7mo ago
AI is still limited to text boxes and text manipulation or content generation
What? Of course it isn't.
AI is used all the time in a whole bunch of "invisible" applications that have nothing to do with text or content generation. Take a photo with a phone camera? You're using AI. Use Nvidia RTX voice? AI. Deal with pharmaceutical molecule research? Fair chance of AI being used. Play guitar and use the newest generation of amp modelers? That's AI again.
SkoomaDentist
9mo ago
I'd like to note that it isn't just the medical establishment or the government (in the USA) that has lost credibility: the public has as well. Going into Covid lockdowns in March 2020, I might have thought that everyone would play along, now I know that there is no chance everyone will play along.
It's fascinating and banging-my-head-to-the-wall inducing to read peoples comments here regarding lockdown and particularly those who assume that the Western response was universaly the same, or at least very similar, as the American response.
Finland never had a lockdown. Not a single one. When the pandemic hit in mid March, the only things forcibly closed were bars and restaurants (after massive public pressure). Yet everything shut down because 1) people voluntarily stopped going out, 2) many facilities owners didn't want the risk of spreading the infection (of which a lot was uncertain back then) and 3) many of the rest didn't want the bad PR. I personally skipped town for two months because I preferred having views like this instead of being stuck in the city with absolutely nothing happening. Apparently nature parks have never been as popular as during that time (and no, nobody even suggested restrictions to that - there's shitloads of open space in Finland, might as well let people enjoy it when it's especially useful).
So, in some places people do play along. It just seems that US is not one of those.
5 - 15th percentile.
Unratlike, 5-15th percentile: Low! You don't jive with most of rationalists say, AI definitely isn't going to end the world, you probably have a great exercise routine.
I don’t like blogs, I really can’t stand pages long drawn out waffling and I’ve long since come to the conclusion that being talked about here often is a major anti-recommendation for an author as far as I’m concerned. I also suspect the nanotech, condensed matter physics and genetic engineering questions assume ”rationalists” to have either studied the domain academically or (more likely) have major Dunning - Kruger about them.
Edit: I suspect the questionnaire could have been reduced to just a single question while keeping much the same result (albeit at much cruder scale): ”Do you like intellectual masturbation even if it doesn’t benefit your professional life or major hobbies?”
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
As it happens, Finland has the tenth most civilian guns per capita in the world. What we don’t have (and what nobody here wants) is US style unlicensed access to guns nor allowing guns for self defence.
”Arming the populace” is a non-issue anyway, since nothing prevents doing it once the war is in progress.
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
There's a difference between "Makeup used to conceal blemishes revealed by HDTV" and "Making a 60 year old look like a 30 year old" (which is what's seen here).
SkoomaDentist
2mo ago
whether one party thinks regulation X is pointless isn't really material, the question is are they willing to endanger a trade deal to ditch the bendy bananas regulation
Considering what said bendy bananas regulation actually says, it's a good example of something the EU should insist on having as it's all about labeling standards, ie. not trying to pass subpar produce as prime quality.
SkoomaDentist
4mo ago
as the alleged gem of the xianxia
This is clearly heresy, for there can only be one: Beware of Chicken (not least because it's a parody of the generally mindblowingly stupid genre)
Full version can be found with fairly trivial googling.
SkoomaDentist
6mo ago
when the reality is that Asian and white Americans are doing great relative to comparable nations
Are they? If that is the case, why do people even in this forum always claim that high school cannot be expected to teach people anything and that's why it is absolutely necessary for colleges / universities to teach liberal arts to vast amount of people?
SkoomaDentist
6mo ago
Very very loud leftist politicians.
SkoomaDentist
1yr ago
Artillery shells or tanks still won't do anything against missiles. Sure, China can keep shooting missiles but they have no chance of mounting an invasion if their navy is at the bottom of the ocean.
SkoomaDentist
2yr ago
The K-pop invasion of the west
What invasion?
I've yet to see a single trace of K-pop outside niche nerd circles.
SkoomaDentist
24d ago
acceleration I’d heard the theory but wondered if the rise of e-bikes had made acceleration less of a faff.
There’s a very simple trick to making acceleration less of a faff that was ubiquituous back in the 90s where I live: Drive slower.
It only takes a few pushes of the pedals to get back to speed that’s still much faster than walking.
SkoomaDentist
4mo ago
I'm thinking Agrippina the Younger or perhaps Laodice I would be more suited for him.
SkoomaDentist
5mo ago
I don't think your Pink Floyd comparison works but we already do value Neil Diamond over the Rolling Stones except as a cultural icon.
SkoomaDentist
6mo ago
are Metalheads still a distinct, recognizable class of music fans?
My previous job was the first job I’ve had in 20 years where none of my coworkers wore a metal band shirt. Yes, they very much are. Long (preferably black) hair, all black clothes, band shirt.
It'd be redundant (and risky) for USA to sabotage Nord Stream 2, as it was killed and buried the day Russia attacked Ukraine. Trying to continue the certification would be a political suicide in Europe unless Russia faces a complete regime change. It's Nord Stream 1 and the related continued dependence on Russian gas that has been the problem.
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