Random Thread

[Man in Space]

The article was interesting because I didn't know a guy named Wolfram was behind Wolfram Alpha.

This brought to mind an incident from college.

When I was still on the hard-science track, I was made to take a course on differential equations. The professor wrote one such equation on the board and asked us how we were to solve it. The guy next to me, sotto voce, said “Wolfram Alpha”.

[Richard W]

Curious. I've recently seen quite a few spiders. Maybe it's peculiar local circumstances - I had been wondering if we were about to get a plague of grasshoppers in our neck of the woods (Hertfordshire).

[Ares Land]

Curious. I've recently seen quite a few spiders. Maybe it's peculiar local circumstances - I had been wondering if we were about to get a plague of grasshoppers in our neck of the woods (Hertfordshire).

There's a study on the problem: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240396/, but their observations were made around Zurich.

It depends a lot on local circumstances; my neck of the woods is somewhat out of the way and we do have a lot of insects and spiders around here.

[Moose-tache]

I started a new sci-fi short story series. It's meant to feel like a cross between Star Wars Lower Decks and Futurama. In the 24th century, a small exploration vessel called The Resourceful must explore the galaxy in the face of dangerous anomalies, hostile aliens, and budget cuts. The first installment is free now through the 14th on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHJQ3LDF
I'm hoping to publish one every month or two, so keep an eye out.

[Raphael]

The article was interesting because I didn't know a guy named Wolfram was behind Wolfram Alpha.

This brought to mind an incident from college.

When I was still on the hard-science track, I was made to take a course on differential equations. The professor wrote one such equation on the board and asked us how we were to solve it. The guy next to me, sotto voce, said “Wolfram Alpha”.

Back during my days as a first aid and disaster response volunteer, I heard some stories from fellow volunteers who, unlike me, had gone a step farther and become volunteer EMTs as well. According to them, at the start of the first class for first aid volunteers who wanted to become volunteer EMTs, the instructor would usually say: "Until now, when you did a first aid shift and things got serious, you called an ambulance. Now, you are the ambulance."

I'm bringing that up here because it makes me think that professor should have told the student "What if you are Wolfram Alpha? That is, if you're one of the people who are supposed to tell Wolfram Alpha how to do something like this?"

[doctor shark]

Random: With yesterday/today being 11 September, I actually was thinking a bit about my experience during that time, living on a military base in Germany. I've put some of the memories down below that people can peruse if desired.

More: show

I'll actually preface this with a story from a bit further back: when we arrived in Germany in 1996, there were some controls going onto/off of the military base, but not really systematic. Most Germans did not go onto the base unless they were invited/needed to, and, in any event, they couldn't use the facilities because the ID cards (and US dollars) were necessary. From the military housing facilities, we could freely go on walks in the woods behind the base, as well as go on bike rides and the like. This changed around 1999, when they installed a fence with controlled access points and instituted systematic identity checks to enter the base: everyone had to get a military ID from the age of 10 and carry it at all times while on the base. Not too much had otherwise changed, though the base I lived on was physically separated by a highway, so you had to go through a checkpoint to go from the housing side to where my father worked and vice-versa. Not much changed, though: my father did need permission to leave Germany, but it normally wasn't too hard to get for vacations.

The events of 11 September happened in the afternoon for us, so right at the end of the school day (and right after the start of the school year, when I was in 6th grade). I still remember the teachers in the main office, glued to the TVs and not really processing what was happening. I don't think any of us really processed what was happening until the military base immediately went into lockdown. My father was called into work pretty much nonstop the rest of the whole week, and all the base facilities, including the schools, were shuttered for the rest of that week. By the end of the week, things had loosened a bit, but they were still tightened: for one, there were checks to enter almost any building on the base, even the commissary (our grocery store) or the mailrooms. Once you left the base, there were very thorough ID and vehicle inspections to re-enter the installation (they closed the main gate and routed everything through a side gate in a neighboring village), and I remember it taking about two hours to get back on. My father was finally able to leave work by the end of the week, but was on a strict rule of not being able to travel more than two hours away from the base and had to even report any of those movements. There were shows of support off the base with some banners here and there, which was nice, but it was all quite an unusual time: you still had long waits to re-enter the base, which meant the teachers commuting in had quite an "adventure". Things relaxed a bit by November, but there were still signs throughout that year: many of the typical excursions and field trips at school were cancelled or greatly revamped because security concerns, like the annual trip to the Nürnberg Christmas Market (which had to take place by bus rather than the usual train outing!), and there were additional lockdown drills as well. I think my father had to jump through quite a few hoops for us to take the planned trip to the Czech Republic in January...

The differences also became very obvious when we moved back to the US the following June, with super-persistent and tight checks at the airport to board the flight. The passport control was not strict, but the airline checks were extremely persistent and thorough, and from that point non-passengers were not allowed to pass the security checkpoints at US airports, so we couldn't go with my father to the gate when he left for South Korea in July.

In some ways, it's crazy to realize that this all happened 22 years ago: it still feels quite fresh in my mind, in some ways...

[Raphael]

Huh. Interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66786611

I'm not sure if even David Bowie could have made a great song with the title "Life on K2-18b".

[Man in Space]

Huh. Interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66786611

I'm not sure if even David Bowie could have made a great song with the title "Life on K2-18b".

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, though…

[WeepingElf]

What do you think of this theory about the uncanny valley?

[zompist]

What do you think of this theory about the uncanny valley?

There's a bunch of theories there, each more unlikely than the last. I do like the Twitter remark, but I wouldn't take it as more than a joke.

There's a lot of assumptions on that page: that the uncanny valley is real, that it's universal, that it's genetic, that it's ancient, that it has an evolutionary function, that it means any one thing, that it reliably detects whatever the theory says. Any or all of these can be questioned.

I'm not sure if Scott McCloud has written about the uncanny valley, but he wrote a lot about cartoonishness and realism, so I think he's relevant. We have an obvious ability to abstract faces and behaviors, to the point that we very easily anthropomorphize animals, pictures, cartoons, clouds, ChatGPT, etc. We also have a (arguably evolutionary but also cultural) ability to analyze tiny details in actual faces. Your brain can tell apart thousands of faces, and immediately identify which of hundreds of emotions they are currently showing. The uncanny valley might just be these two abilities conflicting. The abstraction tells us "this is human" and the detailed facial recognition tells us something is not quite right.

[Ares Land]

There's a lot of assumptions on that page: that the uncanny valley is real,

Oh, I have questions about that one

This is purely anecdotal, but I do notice many older folks are completely unfazed by clowns, and find old dolls pretty/cute.
There's a guy I follow on Mastodon that likes to dig out 1920s-1930s out -- many of these are poorly drawn and borderline creepy. (If you'd like an example, check out the first versions of the Michelin man). People okayed these ads and published them, so evidently they didn't see a problem with them.

So I wonder exactly how much of the uncanny valley effect is cultural? Can't it be partly attributed to Chucky, It or Ghostbusters?

[MacAnDàil]

Yes, that is what Jean Twenge noticed when she compared the generation Z to previous generations at the same age:

That's probably true, but I'm not sure the problem is generational... People my age certainly come across as really anxious and worried too.

Yes, the proof is generational but the effects are probably felt across all generations currently.

Yes, that is what Jean Twenge noticed when she compared the generation Z to previous generations at the same age:

With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person – perhaps why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

https://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/

I think you mean well, but I also think that the idea you support there leads to the implication that all people should always spend a lot of time with other people, and that not doing so is inherently bad, which strikes me as rather unfair towards the introverts among us. Some of us are better off having more of our contact with other people online rather than in real life.

For me personally, the ZBB contains more people who share enough of my interests and outlook to be fun to talk to than I could probably easily find near me in real life.

The implications do not necessarily include the idea that people should always spend a lot of time with other people or that not doing is inherently bad because introverts predate smartphones by a large margin. It does however imply that 1° All things being equal otherwise, spending time in real life is preferable. There are of course other factors, as you note. You may correct me, but I tihnk you probably would like spending time with people share enough of your interests and outlook if they lived near to you. 2° when you do spend time alone, it's not deadscrolling or somesuch, it can be anny number of art or sport o whatever activities 3° when you do spend with people you like, make the most of it instead of talking to them while answering messages.

$

Taleb's point was about what jobs can and can't scale. Some can't: you can't be a surgeon, a barber, a masseur, or a CPA to a million people. You can however provide a book or a rock album to ten or a million people, and in a galactic society to a trillion. That gives the arts a vertiginous class structure, with our present ways of doing things. What I'm pointing out is that music went from non-scaleable to scaleable. Even Mozart couldn't give a concert for a million people; but a Mozart recording can be sold to that many.

It seems to me that there are degrees of sca

Newly thought:
Though, Alice Kober was a schoolteacher, and I think Derek Bickerton is one as well. Is teaching the usual 2nd job for linguists, or do i have that impression because of sampling bias: the ones I've heard of (and know the background of) held that occupation.

It's possibly to do with researchers in general: researcher jobs are often teacher-researcher ones, and linguistics is not available pre-university anywhere as far as I know.

Let me give a concrete example of how reducing energy consumption will hurt the working class: If energy becomes more expensive, then so will transportation. If transportation becomes expensive, then economies of scale will recede. If economies of scale recede, then essential goods will become drastically more expensive. This will hit workers more powerfully than any other class.

Saving the planet is important. I'd just like to do it without committing yet another genocide that gets swept under the rug.

1° If energy becomes more expensive, it could be progressive: there could even be a decrease in spending for the least users and gradually much more.
2° Energy is already becoming expensive in the UK and it's not the fault of ecologists but the same energy companies wanting to drill more oil out of the gorund for their greed.
3° There's already a genocide of Uighurs not by ecologists either, but by the Chinese dictatorship.
4° If transportation becomes more expensive, it could have kerosene taxed more than petrol.

There are enough real problems without thinking about hypothetical ones to blame on those trying solve problems.

Let me give a concrete example of how reducing energy consumption will hurt the working class: If energy becomes more expensive, then so will transportation. If transportation becomes expensive, then economies of scale will recede. If economies of scale recede, then essential goods will become drastically more expensive. This will hit workers more powerfully than any other class.

Saving the planet is important. I'd just like to do it without committing yet another genocide that gets swept under the rug.

Getting back on this point...
I think one point about degrowth that is often overlooked is that it makes a lot of sense for some countries, and no sense at all in others.

Typically developing countries need economic growth and their energy consumption will increase.

In the West, though... GDP per capita in France has doubled between 1990 and 2015. As far as I can see standards of living have not significantly improved since.
As for energy consumption... Our energy use is still highly inefficient (though there have been improvements.)

In some ways cheap transportation can be damaging. No offence to Chileans or Canadians... but we don't need to import apples from Chili, or mustard from Canada.

Exactly. And part of the reason the standards of living have not improved is that a sgnificant amount of the GDP growth went to the top 1% financially. Another is that people are happier when they have enough to eat and house themselves and clothe themselves and a bit more but are necessarily massively happier with massively more money.

I think you've picked up an incorrect understanding of degrowth (which I don't blame you for, I also thought this until I learned what it really is literally yesterday. The name really doesn't help at-a-glance understanding). Degrowth is not "zero or negative growth please", it's actually "stop focussing on growth for growth's sake please". The wellbeing of the people is the primary goal, and negative growth is simply an allowed development if it turns out to be beneficial, as it may well be in the West. But for the Global South, growth is undeniably a good thing for the standard of living, and degrowth would still advocate for it.

This can be a problem for 'zero waste' also: some may get the impression it is necessarily absolute zero and not tending towards zero.

I'm a bit surprised to hear that. I would have thought France would be full of people who take pride in not knowing anything about English.

We have those too, but that might be more typical of older generations.

I've heard all the horror stories about how the French don't talk English and prefer to leave you hanging if you don't speak French, but when I travelled there last time two years ago, I had a rather different experience with young people - they readily spoke English and even switched to English on their own accord when they noted that I had difficulties to express myself in French (it was even a bit annoying, as I actually wanted to practise my French). And that was the case even in non-urban, non-touristy parts of the country.

It is partly because such annoying switching to English in Germany that I preferred Réunion to Germany.

I confirm that you'll get by perfectly fine with English in France these days.

And there was me hoping to get by without English...

Mexican food never really became popular in France; that's why the word 'tacos' could be repurposed for something else entirely.
"French tacos" (for lack of a better name) are flour tortillas wrapped around an unholy quantity of meat, fries and cheese. That kind of tacos is definitely a generational thing -- kids love them but I think past 30 most everyone finds the idea revolting.

And the sauces. An unholy amount of gloopy sauces. And that's from me who likes sauces.

FWIW in some part of France un américain is half a baguette filled with burger patties, fries, and loads of sauce. Why do they call these americans? Was it some dude's idea of a burger before we imported burgers? Who knows?

Here in Réunion you get américain combined with &all sorts: sarcive (char siu), bouchon (local variant of Chinese dumplings) etc

[Linguoboy]

It's that time of the year again, when I ask myself: Where have all the spiders gone?

I hadn't noticed, but it turns out they are Indeed disappearing

That is pretty scary. The few sources I found mention that researchers are still looking for the cause, but it seems to be the general lack of insectes (there are a lot less insects around than there used to...)

When I lived in Germany, I knew a naturalist whose job it was to count spiders. Perhaps because their population is related to the overall insect population, they are apparently a good indicator of the ecological health of a particular area. In that light, their disappearance is particularly scary.

[Raphael]

Today I learned that one of the world's major shipping companies is headquartered in Switzerland, a country with no coastline. "Capitalism - it totally makes sense!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterra ... ng_Company

[Linguoboy]

Today I learned that one of the world's major shipping companies is headquartered in Switzerland, a country with no coastline. "Capitalism - it totally makes sense!"

I'm sorry, what doesn't make sense about this? Does Ginaluigi need to step out on the docks every morning and inspect the boats personally like some kind of 18th-century seaman? Or is all the information he needs to successfully manage his company on spreadsheets?

[Raphael]

I kind of have a combined rant/question, but since it requires background information that might strike people as Too Much Information, I'll put it behind the fold.

More: show

Am I the only person in the world who's neither interested in dominating other people, nor in being dominated by other people?

Seriously, I don't want to deal more than I have to with either people who expect me to make their decisions for them, or people who want to make my decisions for me. That goes both for life in general, and for my sexual desires. But from what I've seen in various places on the Internet, apparently every other adult in the Western world is either a sub or a dom.

So how weird is my outlook?

[malloc]

Not sure if I ought to hide this sort of thing but:

More: show

I have many anomalous sexual reactions but dominance and submission are not particularly prominent among them. The idea of a brash and even dominant partner does appeal to me in fantasy at least, but not enough that I would call it a distinct preference. Certainly I have no desire to be dominated in the wider social or political realm.

[Ares Land]

I kind of have a combined rant/question, but since it requires background information that might strike people as Too Much Information, I'll put it behind the fold.

More: show

As for sex, I don't know. Except it seems people's sex life and kinks are a lot more diverse than we usually assume.

As for social life... I don't think it really relates to sex at all.
But there sure are a lot of people who feel the need for authority and strong hierarchy. It's not just bossing people around. A lot of people feel the need to be in a clear hierarchy, be told what to do, and have rules to obey.
Myself, I have something of an independant streak so I'd rather be entirely outside the hierarchy

[Travis B.]

I am weird here. I either want complete freedom to do what I want, or I want there to be well-defined rules and hierarchy. What I don't want is there to be ambiguous rules and hierarchy, where there is uncertainty as to what I ought to do and who I ought to follow, but I do not have the freedom to do as I please.

[linguistcat]

More: show

I'd say that in the bedroom, it's often more like a game. There are agreed upon rules and both parties (in a "safe, sane and consensual" dynamic at least) are able to stop things from getting out of hand. If anything, the sub should have more say about anything going on in the scene, as long as the Dom doesn't veto it as something they aren't comfortable with.

Some people may take the game too seriously, or play it full time even outside the bedroom, and there are definitely people (Doms and subs) who push things too far. But in general it's play acting. And probably it seems like "everyone" is one or the other is because it's common as far as kinks go and the venn diagram of people willing to explore their kinks and people willing to talk about sex online isn't a circle but it's pretty close. D/s dynamics is probably one of the ten most common kinks, especially if you group them together, tho I don't have a source for that beyond intuition.