domain:amphobian.info
Lewis2
13hr ago
even a connection to wokeness-writ-large seems strained
No, I think it’s very easy to place the blame squarely on wokism, especially given this detail:
The museum to the accomplishments and hardships of my ancestors had been "renovated". It now celebrated the fictitious diversity my town has always had.
Museum curators are 94% Democratic, and the newer generation seems quite gung-ho on inserting racial diversity everywhere. The New York Tenement Museum made the news a few years ago when it altered its core principles to change its focus from the Italian and Jewish families who actually lived there to celebrate a black Black family who didn’t. The Art Institute of Chicago made headlines around the same time for firing its entire staff of unpaid, highly educated volunteer docents because they were too white and hiring (and paying) a younger, more diverse crowd in their place (something several other museums also did, but without the attendant fanfare). In the city closest to my own hometown, the history museum has started replacing its old displays on the history of the area. With the changes, a first time visitor could be forgiven for thinking that the area’s history went 1) Native Americans, 2) Genocide, 3) Civil Rights, and 4) Immigration (2000–present), without anything of note in between. It’s a deliberate assault on the heritage of the people who actually built the city and made the area what it is today, and it’s entirely due to the wokeness of the museum staff.
self_made_human
Grippy socks, grippy box
13hr ago
I'm an early adopter of LLMs, but using them to "write" the thing would be counterproductive. If I had to give an estimate, less than 1%.
I use LLMs for:
- Editing
- Brainstorming
- Research
- As an alpha reader
Research is the big one. I remember, back in the GPT-4 days, I asked it to help make a certain Jamaican character's patois more realistic. Didn't think much of it, till six months later, when an actual Jamaican reader left a comment saying that he was really impressed at how authentic it was, and asked me if I'd asked a native speaker.
Writers are often advised to write what they know, and it's remarkable how easy it is to know more these days. I used to trawl Wikipedia articles and crib notes back in the day, now you can just ask an alien intelligence.
Hmm.. What else? There are half a dozen chapters I illustrated with the help of AI image generators. More of a novelty than anything, but it was super cool that it was even an option.
self_made_human
Grippy socks, grippy box
14hr ago
No.
(You're gorgeous)
grognard
Intel Pentium III 450 / Nvidia Riva TNT2 Ultra / Corsair 128MB PC133 / ABIT BH6
14hr ago
Am I pretty?
anti_dan
14hr ago
This post reminds me of the "His name was Robert Paulson" scene from Fight Club. Just a heads up.
naraburns
nihil supernum
14hr ago
We do have much better video games now, though.
Very debatable, especially if you include the early 2000s.
I appreciate everyone taking the bait, but: I did say 1990s, I would not include the early 2000s (particularly since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) is still among the best-written CRPGs in history).
The Super Nintendo was indeed an excellent console with some timeless classics (FF4, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, Super Mario World, Super Metroid) as well as foundations to future franchises (Mario Kart, Star Fox, Harvest Moon) and strong entries in others. The Nintendo 64 struggled but brought amazing first party titles (Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros.) while the PlayStation brought mature themes and writing to new prominence. Final Fantasy 7 was a tour de force. No question: the 1990s were fire.
But almost every single franchise I've mentioned so far has stronger entries now. The Final Fantasy franchise has fallen off, but Expedition 33 is as good or better than FF7 along almost every axis but chocobo breeding and cinematic summons. Super Mario Galaxy (and its direct sequel) are better games than Mario 64, and Donkey Kong Bananza on the Switch 2 reinvents 3D platforming with equal aplomb. Red Dead Redemption 2 exceeds the writing, design, voice acting, etc. of basically every game that came before it. It's not just "better graphics," though it certainly has those. The Grand Theft Auto games from III to V were just one masterpiece after another. Even indies--you can argue that Stardew Valley lacks originality since it's just an evolution of Harvest Moon, and yet given a choice between Stardew Valley and the SNES Harvest Moon, I don't know anyone who would pick Harvest Moon.
I sometimes go back and play old games for nostalgia, but I almost always bounce off pretty fast. Some few games hold up surprisingly well but most just don't. We owe past developers a debt of gratitude for breaking new ground but the level of polish the years (and billions of dollars) have brought to the industry can't be ignored. Yeah, bad games get made, but that was always true. The best games of today are leagues ahead of the best titles developed in the 1990s, along basically every axis of comparison except pure originality (since originality was lower-hanging fruit in those days), and I don't even think it's close.
anti_dan
14hr ago
My hometown was a very less egregious version of this. Well, sort of hometown. We moved there from an adjacent town when I was in 5th grade. By the time I got to HS the immigrant population had jumped pretty significantly such that about 15% of freshman struggled with English. Violence was not a problem at school, we had a sufficient supply of jocks and racists that made it clear to them (at the time) that there would be reprisals. I recall one such when a 15 y/o illegal grabbed a girl's tits, and the football team broke his leg and his bike. This influence kept them mostly sidelined from the time I was there. By my youngest sibling's graduation though, it was more like 25% and it was becoming a real problem. And like you said, DUI is actually the biggest problem. It is out of control, no DL, no INS, 15 modelos in the back seat. They then just don't come to court and go to some other town, or just hide till hopefully (for them) the SOL runs out or the cop retires and wont be able to come back from Florida for a class A misdemeanor or CL4 felony (depending on what was actually charged).
anti_dan
14hr ago
I do wonder where, when, and why "community organizer" was coined. Among the euphemisms for fake jobs that are out there is isn't a particularly good or effective one. The first time I recall hearing it was with regards to Barak Obama during his senate run. No one seemed fooled. Maybe a few people hung onto it to avoid thinking they were not voting for an unemployed grifter, but I don't see that as having been a significant number of people, it was a 2005 IL senate DNC primary. People were expecting a grifter.
100ProofTollBooth
Dumber than a man, but faster than a dog.
15hr ago
I had a feeling you'd reply with some knowledge. Much appreciated.
Un-restricting the TLM and normalized SSPX relations are the two things I've watching for. I believe I'll be watching for some time.
magicalkittycat
15hr ago
Daily Mail is not the best sort of news outlet, but they are serving as additional confirmation that the birthday book exists and that the Trump letter is real. Also that Bill Clinton sent one as well. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14921905/Donald-Trump-sues-Wall-Street-Journal-MoS-reveals-Bill-Clinton-letter-Jeffrey-Epstein-birthday.html
Important parts
Bill Clinton wrote a 'warm and gushing' letter which was included in Jeffrey Epstein's infamous 50th 'birthday book', The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Mr Clinton's letter is one page and is embossed with: 'From the desk of William Jefferson Clinton' at the top.
A lot of other people wrote letters
Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson – both friends of Epstein at that time – are also believed to have contributed letters to the book alongside Mr Clinton, who regularly flew in Epstein's private jet, dubbed 'the Lolita Express'.
Last night, a source said: 'Ghislaine asked everyone they knew and that included presidents, princes and kings.
'Bill Clinton wrote a warm and gushing letter. It was one page and profuse in its admiration for Jeffrey.'
The MoS has been told Epstein's close friend, Harvard scholar Henry Rosovsky, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and computer pioneer Marvin Minsky also all contributed letters.
The WSJ claimed Epstein's lawyer Alan Dershowitz wrote a letter but he has yet to comment about the claim.
We don't know where the original book is at now.
The whereabouts of the original book is not known.
It is thought to have been seized during one of the raids on Epstein's homes in Florida and New York, where Maxwell kept 'dozens of albums' filled with pictures of their trips together including holidays to visit Prince Andrew at Balmoral, Buckingham Palace and Windsor.
The source says the book is real, the letters are real, but the evidence files themselves used contain facsimiles of them
The letters are believed to have been included in more than 100,000 pages of evidence recently reviewed by 1,000 FBI agents working in 24-hour shifts.
It is believed the letters were copied by investigators and entered into evidence as facsimiles around the time the book was seized.
A source claimed the WSJ's story was based on a 'poor facsimile' copy of the alleged Trump letter and said: 'The book is now sitting in a storage facility somewhere, if it still exists.
'What was in the evidence pile were poor-quality copies of single pages, not a copy of the whole book.'
This could be one of the funniest ways to confirm that the Trump letter is a real thing, a retaliatory leak against Clinton. Also suggesting that the Epstein files are a bit of a MAD situation going on with the parties and perhaps even other elites.
Quantumfreakonomics
15hr ago
For one thing, the winds at high altitude pretty much always blow from West to East in the mid lattitudes, posing issues if you're Russia in this scenario.
For another, I doubt that big slow balloons are that hard to shoot down, even at 70k feet. Modern multirole fighter planes can get to 55k-60k, and specialized interceptors can get to 80k. You wouldn't need a big fancy missile to get from 60k feet to 70k feet. You might even be able to hit it with an autocannon.
anti_dan
15hr ago
Poors shoplifting for personal consumption happens (particularly for booze) but isn't what is closing grocery stores.
I agree. Tide pods I know are big, as is the alcohol in resale.
hydroacetylene
15hr ago
Go ahead and start listing them off.
hydroacetylene
15hr ago
No. The pope is on summer vacation and unlikely to have been the decision maker on this one, even if it bears his name.
Zephyr
15hr ago
The way you write Hanania reminds me of Sailer’s law of female journalists (https://www.unz.com/isteve/sailers-law-of-female-journalism/) - very low value human capital of him to succumb to the same pressures.
cjet79
15hr ago
As the other commentor pointed out even the nearby tragedy doesn't have any kind of particular flavor. The bully that committed suicide is something I already mentioned.
The other nearby tragedies don't have a flavor other than "random".
A classmate killed on her way to SATs by a truck driver running a red light.
An older swim team friend dying in a car accident.
A swim team coach dying of a sudden heart attack on deck at a swim meet.
A student a few years older burned himself alive outside the school due to bullying.
A friend in his mid thirties dying of a sudden heart attack.
A cousin losing their boyfriend to cancer.
Tragedy has been around, but it's not very violent. And it's definitely not anyone's fault.
I have heard of the civilizational fraying, but I haven't really personally seen it. I don't even disbelieve you or anything. It's just accepting some of your conclusions or policy advice would run heavily counter to my own personal experiences. I don't even have a good way of resolving this dissonance. 5 years ago pre COVID I might have suggested trusting expert opinion and statistics on the topic. Now I'm pretty doubtful on the usefulness of that approach.
anti_dan
15hr ago
That is a fair point. Meat still is harder to fence than booze, and does need to be kept fresh.
anti_dan
15hr ago
The WSJ is going to have a copy of the letter they can carbon date to 2003? Anything less than that with a good COC is useless. Dozens of people have already made convincing hoaxes using the WSJ's piece as source material.
Quantumfreakonomics
15hr ago
My understanding is that the Vatican has been granting exemptions quite freely when the local bishop asks nicely, even under Francis. As far as I can tell, there are no recognized TLM society chapels within 200 miles of San Angelo, so it would be well within the current guidance to grant an exeption.
OliveTapenade
15hr ago
It’s not uncommon for people to say “I’m pro-choice, not pro-abortion.” If you are one of those folks or know someone who is, we know your heart is in the right place. But this framing is hurtful to people who’ve had abortions and those who might need abortions in the future. It implies that abortion isn’t a moral good and that while legal abortions are needed, they are somehow bad.
...wow, that's a new one to me. In my experience prior to now, very few activists would say that abortions are actively good. The line I usually heard was indeed that abortions, while unpleasant or even tragic, are sometimes necessary, and that the best person to decide whether or not one is necessary is the woman considering one. That seemed like a more sensible approach if only because there are a great many people who have moral qualms or concerns around abortion who can be persuaded into accepting it sometimes as a lesser evil, and those are the people that pro-choice and pro-life movements fight to sway to their side.
But I'm probably behind the times here. I haven't been following this area closely over the last few years.
cjet79
15hr ago
Yeah that's a good description. Tragedy hasn't impacted me or the people around me.
clo
15hr ago
It just comes down to appreciating the small things.
I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but I've had the pleasure to observe some of the senior programmers at work who are deeply in the hole and have hundreds of dollars worth of specialized coffee equipment at the office just for the sake of getting a slightly better cup.
This strikes me as insanity, but over time I've learned to appreciate both the ritual that they go through and also the massive chain of events that led to that equipment being developed, built, procured, the coffee being sourced, grown, packaged - all of it.
Working in logistics has given me a deep appreciation for how the supply chain works at all, given how much of a mess it frequently is. All for the sake of delivering these small miracles we don't even think about.
OliveTapenade
15hr ago
Wanderer got there first, I think.
Lower-case 'black lives matter' is a mother statement. Nobody's going to argue that the lives of black people don't matter except the most egregious and nihilistic of racists. The phrase 'black lives matter' is even entirely consistent with believing that black lives are worth less than white lives - if they matter any amount above zero, the statement is true.
Capital-letter 'Black Lives Matter' refers to a movement that makes specific, potentially false claims around police violence, structural racism, and so on. I fully sympathise with not wanting to endorse those claims, since many of them are false. But I don't see how naming the movement constitutes endorsing it, no more than saying the words 'Human Rights Campaign' implies that I agree with the specific, potentially false claims made by the HRC.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
15hr ago
Claude tells me it's basically 'self-sustaining fusion reactor +++' since you have hundreds of tonnes of high-temperature, enriched mercury and lithium in there too somehow being restrained by a material under intense neutron bombardment. It needs months and years of sustained neutron production to work.
Probably easier to do the 'we made like 6 atoms of gold in a particle accelerator' thing in a lab.
Not a direct response to your question, but Leo created a bit of a stir in traditional Roman Catholic circles last week when he celebrated Mass ad orientem. Read into that what you will.
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