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“Solar is terrible and it takes a whole desert full of panels to barely get any power. By the way I’m a big fan of solar.”
posted to FanFare by soundguy99 at 6:45 PM on September 10, 2024

Millennial's Worst Nightmare!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by O9scar at 12:09 PM on September 6, 2024 marked best answer

I wonder how many real life sieges have ended that way?

In the ancient and the medieval world and even the early modern era, armies were frequently swept with epidemics of dysenteric diseases. They were already frequently endemic in most large cities. The Romans understood the importance of public sanitation better than many - they build the Cloaca Major, the main sewer under the city of Rome quite early in their history. But Rome was one of the very... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Jane the Brown at 9:44 AM on August 19, 2024

I found this Mastodon post to be informative on the financial and logistical dilemmas the Russians now have. A lot of money is coming in from those gas pipelines... https://infosec.exchange/@littlealex/112925288375029203
posted to MetaFilter by anthill at 10:38 AM on August 13, 2024

I've seen it said around a couple places online that with Ukraine making an offensive into Russia, Russia has spent the last couple years going from the second strongest army in the world, to the second strongest army in Ukraine, and now the second strongest army in Russia.
posted to MetaFilter by tclark at 12:10 PM on August 12, 2024

I know this is a deadly serious situation, but that headline made me laugh, Rhaomi.
posted to MetaFilter by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 11:54 AM on August 12, 2024

A classic tale of a fake UI:
Coinstar is a great example of this.

The machine is able to calculate the total change deposited almost instantly. Yet, during testing the company learned that consumers did not trust the machines. Customers though it was impossible for a machine to count change accurately at such a high rate.

Faced with the issues of trust and preconceived expectations of necessary effort, the company began to rework the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by steveminutillo at 8:36 AM on July 12, 2024

If you want more uniqueness just portmanteau two regular names together. Like Veronifer, Svenjamin, Perstephanie, Fredinand, Stupert, Flyncent, Evelydia, Carolive, Calebeneezer, etc. Guaranteed good results.
posted to MetaFilter by aubilenon at 6:10 PM on July 10, 2024

Train that with vast amounts of Monty Python and I’m sure that will go well


He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty bot.
posted to MetaFilter by ocschwar at 1:02 PM on July 10, 2024

One thing I never hear about is how you can find compassion for your skin. We none of us will ever have a perfect body. While surgery and make up and training can change it to something closer to something we find heart stoppingly beautiful, they carry their own flaws - surgery destroys sensation by cutting nerves, make up washes off, training requires sustain effort and causes stress damage. And all efforts at changing your body can underscore the feeling that the essential self beneath... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jane the Brown at 5:23 AM on July 10, 2024

Speaking of yiddish, needs more towels.....

---

No matter what this Moyshe did in bed, his wife never achieved an orgasm.

Since by Jewish law a wife is entitled to sexual pleasure, they decide to consult their Rabbi.

The Rabbi listens to their story, strokes his beard, and makes the following suggestion: 'Hire a strapping young man. While the two of you are making love, have the young man wave a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 8:07 PM on July 9, 2024

Hey all, weird thing happened--it turns out the roguelike book I wrote is in the current Humble Bundle, the one of Game Development!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:35 PM on July 9, 2024

Sitting at my desk in our ramshackle old house in the centre of a picturesque 17th/18th century Dutch town, a Brit at the height of pre-Brexit anxieties, I read that old boys like me who had been here a long time were eligible for citizenship. Great news! Only one problem, the whole process, including interviews, had to be done in Dutch and my Dutch was an abomination, more likely to cause an international incident than win me a passport and unrestricted access to my home and family.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dutchrick at 1:21 AM on July 8, 2024

Michelle Dean has written something incredible about this.
posted to MetaFilter by minervous at 4:01 PM on July 8, 2024

As I recall, the law dealing with looted artifacts in the US requires the government to sue the artifact, resulting in cases with titles like “United States vs. One Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton”
posted to MetaFilter by Just the one swan, actually at 2:58 PM on July 6, 2024

I see whitehouse.gov mentioned, and I once touched whitehouse.gov
In the '90s, I spent a fair amount of time in the computer room we referred to as EOP (Executive Office of the President) in the New Executive Office Building.
One day around 1994, I was wandering around in the mainframe room and looked down to see a high-end PS2 (IBM, not Sony), a model 70 or 80, sitting on the floor, and it was labelled whitehouse.gov.
So I reached out to put a hand on it.
posted to MetaFilter by MtDewd at 5:29 AM on July 6, 2024

What is it about Sonic the Hedgehog that is so unfathomable to me? I played the video game on the Genesis when it came out and it was fun! But at no point in time did I think it would become a rabbit hole of almost pathological creativity.

This actually has very little to do with the video games and goes back thirty years to the "good" Sonic cartoon which aired on Saturday mornings and is often referred to as Sonic SatAM. Without falling... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by RonButNotStupid at 7:56 AM on July 5, 2024

So Back in the Day I lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, which has a better-than-you'd-expect art gallery, the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke. A converted really huge three-story mansion.

There was a touring exhibit of impressionist painters that was hitting all the big Canadian galleries that year. You got your Monets, you got your Van Goghs, like one or two lesser paintings from a bunch of the big names. And for some reason, it gets a week at MBAS as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:35 AM on July 5, 2024

Thanks for posting this, I got sucked into it yesterday. The most interesting parts of this to me are the cryptids, simple Turing machines that calculate various unproven mathematical hypotheses. If the machine ever terminates, the hypothesis is disproven. But since the hypothesis has not yet been proven, we don't know if the machine will run forever either, so it is in that liminal state of infinite perplexion. We just dunno!
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 6:10 AM on July 4, 2024

To echo rory, multifactorial descent into 2nd world status; Brexit as primary accelerant but not the only cause.

my friends in the UK say “this place has an air of terminal decline”

Salaries in the UK for are shit and have been shit for a long time; taxes were middling for europe, the cost of living has also was also middle ish (but recently the cost of living has accelerated a lot and wages are stagnant)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 7:26 AM on July 4, 2024

I think people fixate on chat gpt a bit too much.

Think of it this way: language modeling is a technology that was generating >$100B a year, 5 years ago. Almost none of that was from chat bots, it was from things like analytics, predictions, search, speech recognition. Most of those cases were hidden deep inside massive corporations, governments, and the military, and were an extension of the ways statistics and data and computers have been at the core of all large... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by constraint at 2:54 AM on July 4, 2024

North Korea managed to source lithium-6 deuteride just fine for their September 2017 test (you don’t get yields much in excess of 20kT without it), which means someone fucking handed them the fissile material we need to worry about and the list of feasible suspects for that looks like:
Russia,
Pakistan

Everyone else with capability - China very much included - has damned good strategic reasons not to.

Point being:... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ryvar at 10:04 AM on July 2, 2024

The Dems actually had me pushing the bottom of the ticket rather than the top

Bless you for doing that tough door-knocking work. And bless the NC Dems and their new, very young and energetic chair, Anderson Clayton, who, after years of corruption and incompetence at the top of the state party, is a woman who honestly seems to understand what it will take to break the GOP supermajority in the state: a focus on downballot races.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 12:32 PM on August 10, 2024

Establishing shots of KWC in the 1988 van Damme film "Bloodsport."
posted to MetaFilter by Rash at 3:33 PM on July 2, 2024

The stylus was uncovered during an excavation effort centered on a now-lost tributary of the Thames

Of course! The stylus was taken from a bank.
posted to MetaFilter by Smart Dalek at 2:36 PM on June 30, 2024

you may not like Biden-style industrial policy but it's real and it's happening

BungaDunga, thanks for the reality check.

I'm really bummed by the large number of lefties who basically haven't taken notice of anything good that Biden's done, because of their personal loathing for the guy.

Clinton-era neoliberalism is not just dead, it's buried in a lead coffin with a stake thru its heart and a whole... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Artifice_Eternity at 7:09 PM on June 30, 2024

Never seen it. However.

Napoleon Dynamite came on TV during one of the times I was back visiting parents during college, and I guess my dad was watching it as he was falling asleep. He was in bed and started shouting my name down the hall, I thought he was dying maybe idk, so I ran to his room. He's lying there, furiously pointing at the TV, and demands "WHAT AM I WATCHING???" how tf?? But I look, and it's obviously Napoleon Dynamite, and I say "why are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phunniemee at 10:55 AM on June 28, 2024

Officials argue that their policies are aimed at encouraging homeless people to seek housing, although the city itself does not have its own shelter. It directs people to one run by a religious organization that has limited space and imposes conditions that some homeless people object to.

This type of reasoning is just lies that people - both liberal and conservative - tell themselves and the media because it is somewhat unpalatable to say, "I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2024

In that setting, repetition works completely differently from when you read or listen to a text alone, and also differently from a "normal" theater performance. Repetition and lists work like choruses, you sort of sing along in your mind, enjoying the recognition.

A reciter can also put interpretative spin on the repetitions for comic or ironic effect. I just finished an excellent audiobook version of the Iliad, with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 9:00 AM on June 28, 2024

Further, in the US, if you buy a large truck or SUV to use for your business, irrespective of whether your business requires that type of vehicle, you can write off a substantial amount of the purchase price and get a special rate of depreciation.
posted to MetaFilter by toodleydoodley at 7:26 AM on June 25, 2024

I have obvious issues with AI hype coming from people who overstate its capabilities because they don’t really understand what LLMs are doing, but this is a currently-rare case in which someone is jumping on an anti-AI bandwagon in response to someone using an LLM for precisely the sort of thing it is good for.

The ability to compose a good toast is nowhere near universal, and people’s confidence in their ability to do so effectively is even less so.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gelfin at 7:29 AM on June 25, 2024

This bill, like any such legislation, “requires a specific version of the Ten Commandments.”
...
This is not “The Ten Commandments” that can be found in any Bible. It’s “The Ten Commandments” that Hollywood used to promote DeMille’s 1956 blockbuster The Ten Commandments.

Fred Clark on the subject.
posted to MetaFilter by Ickster at 2:43 PM on June 19, 2024

Every time I encounter one of these guys I ask what they think of the Chicago school and Friedman and the coups in South America, and to a man (because, obviously) they have no idea what I am talking about.
posted to MetaFilter by Just the one swan, actually at 7:54 AM on June 18, 2024

"He subjected these statements to logical analysis, by replacing them with symbols, and combined them in different ways, through mathematical operations, till all he had left was a result that, according to his system, was categorically true: absolute evil does not exist and pain is an instrument of good."

Gödelian incompleteness is simultaneously a kink and a kind of kink-shaming and I will be taking no questions at this time.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 3:04 PM on June 17, 2024

Anand Giridharadas with an interesting clip: "So much of how we analyze politics is outdated. In this media economy, when we’re up against authoritarianism, attention and emotion and vibes and rousing people from their slumber is everything. Analysis must catch up!"
posted to MetaFilter by mittens at 11:18 AM on August 7, 2024

Trump loves attention from online Nazis and he loves giving it back but he isn’t one himself - Vance is totally an online Nazi, he is fully immersed in those waters.

I'm not so sure we can say with certainty that Trump isn't an offline Nazi (via his probably-was-at-that-Long-Island-KKK-rally dad), but here's JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman (NYTimes; archive link):The word “fascist” gets thrown around a lot in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nobody at 8:54 AM on August 7, 2024

Amanda Marcotte attended both yesterday's Vance event and the Harris rally, and wrote about the contrast for Salon. Her description when linking to the piece on bluesky was It was like leaving a bitter divorced man meet-up and going straight to a Taylor Swift concert.
posted to MetaFilter by the primroses were over at 4:33 AM on August 7, 2024

As Craig Ferguson used to say "It's a great day for America everybody!" I've been just giddy all day. I'm very excited to vote FOR people instead of just against people. I just started a short course of steroids and my doctor asked me to let her know if I have any depression or mania. I'm not sure what to tell her. There is mania, but likely not from the prednisone.

I'm sad we're losing Walz in MN, but he's going to be amazing so I'm happy to share him.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:53 PM on August 6, 2024

A good video supercut (3 min.) of Walz in press appearances over the past couple of weeks.
posted to MetaFilter by darkstar at 1:50 PM on August 6, 2024

Couldn't help it. Made a campaign sign for Orange Goblin/Couch Fucker. Also made a Radiohead variant.
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 1:42 PM on August 6, 2024

coffeecat: If you want to tear up a bit, listen to this radio spot...

Jesus Christ! I'm not supposed to tear up over a 20-year old radio spot.

That story is "For sale: baby shoes, never worn"-grade stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by wenestvedt at 1:09 PM on August 6, 2024

We Rate Dogs throwback: When Tim Walz' dog locked himself (the dog, not the governor) in the bedroom.

be sure to click/swipe through all three photos
posted to MetaFilter by martin q blank at 11:58 AM on August 6, 2024

Meet VP Pick Tim Walz | Harris-Walz 2024
[Kamala Harris account, YouTube] 😊
posted to MetaFilter by Glinn at 11:36 AM on August 6, 2024

folks should read that genocide article Maarika posted. It is really something.

So Mr. Walz took his students — Brandon Bell, the wrestler; Beth Taylor, the cheerleader; Lanae Merwin, the quiet girl always reading some book about Queen Elizabeth; and all the other children of mechanics, secretaries and a town dentist — and assigned them to study the conditions associated with mass murder. What factors, he asked them to determine, had been present when Germans... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kensington314 at 10:04 AM on August 6, 2024

That Minnesota Public Radio profile ends with what feels to me like quintessential Walz:

Asked about whether the raft of Minnesota changes would make him too progressive a candidate, Walz joked that he was a “monster” for supporting efforts to fund school lunches and guarantee legal protections for those seeking abortions.

“What a monster. Kids are eating, eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kristi at 8:07 AM on August 6, 2024

The Atlantic, late March 2020: The Show That Illustrates the Numbness of Staying Alive
The (timely) idea of human resilience in the face of constant crisis.
posted to FanFare by still_wears_a_hat at 6:05 AM on March 30, 2020

I wanted to like this piece more, as I'd like to see a more nuanced take on AI that the usual boost/deny/doom options. But the author seems to be a visual artist who doesn't quite understand how LLMs/generative AIs actually work, and how that affects their strengths and limitations.

A genuine intelligence can understand that a cow, a cat, a rabbit, a rat and a human are all mammals. From that it can understand that if you, say, hold it underwater long enough it will die.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by TheophileEscargot at 7:45 AM on July 22, 2024

Also, I really want to buy a beer for whoever it was that inside the Biden campaign that conceived of and then got the principals onboard with the early debate proposal. They may not have known it at the time. But that person changed history.
posted to MetaFilter by dyslexictraveler at 11:52 AM on July 21, 2024

Hey folks, many thanks again to those who volunteered to speak to a reporter. I will be sending out pitches to new places next week. Steven Levy of Wired did just publish his take on MF's anniversary in his newsletter, which can be read here.

It is entirely possible that no one else will pick up the story, but Steven did and for that I am grateful as well as to NotLost and the many others who have helped me. Thanks so much!... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Bella Donna at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2024

Nancy Pelosi in the bushes with a blowpipe.


new darmok vocab just dropped
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 7:21 AM on July 18, 2024