Yet another refugee who washed up on the shore after the great Reddit disaster of 2023
No, that's bullshit. Maybe you just don't remember his first term. His picks then were the worst ever, but not nearly at this level. It was infuriating. You don't remember the harm Betsy Devos did to the department of education? It's the cabinet members who cause much of the destruction.
Oh, well, silly me then. No, like the other guy said, it's very stretchy. If you have your own scrotum, it's easily confirmed. If you have girly parts, the skin is very similar to the outer labia: very sensitive to scratching, but it doesn't hurt to stretch it.
This whole thing is so soul crushing. I've always stayed informed to the point that I consider it a part of who I am. Now Trump and the Republicans control all branches of government, he's putting in literally the worst possible choices for cabinet positions, they're actively planning on some of the most abhorrently racist actions, and Trump is spinning up his grift machine. All of the checks and balances have been removed and replaced with loyalty assessments, and so we're sitting here with no reasonable way to avoid the disasters. My chest is constantly tight and I just don't think I can keep tuned into live coverage of the national disaster.
Not sure there was a right answer in this one. We legitimately bitched about Trump not supporting a peaceful transfer of power. Now he's legitimately won the election, and Biden is trying to support a peaceful transfer of power the way we have for every election other than the one Trump lost.
I don't think they're asking about the stretching, but about having a puddle of alcohol on your scrotum. That was my first thought as well. Probably okay if it's wine, but not sure about something high proof.
In next month's news: Ozempic being bought by Nestle
When I do bcc to a big list, I describe the distribution in the email header. Like "To: all users of the xxx application" or "To: All Engineering employees at the yyy site."
I agree that, asking with the bad things OP mentions, there are good things about a smaller site. I remember a lot of times on Reddit when I had something to say, but when I went into the thread there were thousands of comments and I'd feel like there just wasn't a point in adding mine.
On Lemmy, when I make a comment, it's very likely to be seen (for better or worse), and I have much more of a feeling of adding to the conversation. It's more like joining a conversation at a party.
There's a huge contingent, even here, who loves both those guys, but maybe more importantly, they're supposed to be on our side. Hell, Trump is the president! Putin is the dictatorial ruler of an enemy country, we expect that he's going to do and say stuff that's terrible.
To be fair, torties aren't happy about much of anything
That's only after the electoral college votes.
I'll be surprised if he lives long enough for that - he's old and has a terrible diet - but he said at a fundraiser that people would only need to vote one more time, which many took to mean that's all he'd need to stay in power. He tried a failed coup in 2020, so clearly doesn't care if it's lawful or not. Would anyone be surprised?
You know, for this whole election cycle, many, many people have been commenting on the parallels between Trump/MAGA and the rise of the Nazi party. It hasn't just been people on social media, there have been lots of well cited articles. Take a look at this Guardian piece from the summer.
So yes, the parallels are so significant that it makes people wonder if it's coincidental or a playbook.
Isn't this one of the LLMs that was partially trained on Reddit data? LLMs are inherently a model of a conversation or question/response based on their training data. That response looks very much like what I saw regularly on Reddit when I was there. This seems unsurprising.
Any Warcraft 3 players read the headline and automatically respond with "I'm not ready!"
Heh, understandable. I'm one of the older Lemmy folks, I'd guess. I'm a software engineering manager for an aerospace company.
My wife and I moved into our first house together on Halloween, 1995, so that night we drank a bottle of champagne, watched Young Frankenstein, and handed out candy. Every year since then we've done the same thing to celebrate our anniversary of living together, though sometime a different movie. This year, we couldn't find our DVD, so decided to stream it and found what you did. Apparently Disney bought it and for some reason decided not to make it available. Very frustrating.
For those wondering, this appears to be true. Most sites that say it all reference the same person, whose study doesn't seem very scientific, but I found this much more controlled study that did indeed replicate the conclusions.
That's a good theory. It's long been held that the more population dense area of the country skew liberal because diverse people jammed together learn to understand and get along with each other. You could make an argument that growing up on an internet with unfettered voices expressing themselves would be similar.
But the underlying racism that seems to fuel modern conservatism seems to be growing in all areas. I'm in California, which is about as blue as it gets, but like 40 percent of people voted for Trump.
I've been saying here for ages that the perception of boomers being overwhelmingly right wing and younger generations being overwhelmingly left wing is far, far from accurate. You can look at the demographic data from the prior two elections and see that, yes, there were more conservative boomers than liberal, but it's not a big margin, and for younger generations it was flipped. Now it appears the younger folks are more conservative than liberal.
As a very liberal boomer, it's been frustrating to get so many truly hateful responses, even recently, based on nothing other than the year I was born. I kept feeling like that level of intolerance didn't bode well, and now I'm thinking that concern was validated.
Glasgow 2024, A Worldcon for our Futures, released the following statement today: In the course of tallying the votes on the final ballot for the 2024 Hugo Awards, the Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administrat…
Pretty amazing considering the 2023 fiasco.
Any recommendations for an Android app?
My wife got a new phone, and the sudoku app she had on her old one is no longer available. Do any of you have recommendations for an Android app that doesn't do ads during the game and can be played offline?
Our writers pick their favourite science fiction books of all time
We asked New Scientist staff to pick their favourite science fiction books. Here are the results, ranging from 19th-century classics to modern day offerings, and from Octavia E. Butler to Iain M. Banks
This is an interesting list. It's missing some of the true great classics, like Frankenstein, and it has a number of unusual, less well known titles, but there's a lot to like on it. There's certainly a lot for people to disagree about, but it may well have your less often cited favorites, too. What do you think?
What are your favorite mashups?
That The Knack/Ting Tings/Toni Basil mashup got me thinking about other great mashups, so I'm wondering what your favorites are. Here are a few of mine:
- This Green Day/Collective Soul mashup is just one of the best, most seamless I've heard.
- Kind of like the funny ones, and this Taylor Swift/NIN mashup makes me giggle
- My all-time favorite, because it's both really well done and is hysterically funny to me, has to be this The Wiggles/Slipknot mashup
Noem brags in her new book about her experience 'staring down little tyrants' in a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Her spokesperson called it an error.
>"I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un," she wrote in the book set to be released Tuesday. "I'm sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I'd been a children's pastor, after all)."
>But Noem's spokesperson seemed to confirm to Politico and other news outlets that the story is not accurate and that the book will be corrected to remove it.
She sounds like the perfect Trump VP candidate: she just says whatever she thinks people will eat up and doesn't worry about whether it's true or not.
Do you think there's a downvote bot in this community?
I see a lot of posts here with zero or negative total votes. I posted one just a bit ago and it went to zero pretty quickly. I don't personally care, but it seems curious. It's not like this is a political community or something divisive. What would make someone downvote before they even know what the song is?
Notes from a year of reading science fiction and fantasy
Below are books I've read over the last year, with notes about on what I thought of them. I started this list just to remind me what the books were about and if I thought they were worth reading. As the year went on, my notes became a little more substantial. The list was for me, but I thought I'd share in case it's useful to anyone. I recognize that it's very subjective.
Project Hail Mary, Weir Don't want to describe it even a little because spoilers would spoil; it's a book you should read without knowing anything. It's really good.
Fall, Stephenson Billionaire scanned into a digital world, and the people around him in the real world. Interesting and thought-provoking.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman Little boy stumbles upon old magic and an old evil. Really good.
The Ultimate Earth, Williamson Children on the moon are the latest in a long series of clones watching over the facility there, generations after the earth has all but forgotten them. A historian visits them.
The first four Discworld books, Pratchett Silly fun - disc-shaped world that sits atop four elephants that stand on a giant turtle riding through space. Each book is in the world, but separate stories with mostly separate characters. Lots of magic, lots of humor.
Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge, Resnick Long after humans are extinct, a group of alien archeologists uncover the origins and stories of mankind through the stories told by artifacts found in Olduvai gorge. Very unusual.
A Memory Called Empire, Martine Galactic empire space opera. Ambassador from a large space station to the central planet of the empire has an old copy of her predecessor implanted in her head - a technology user for generations by the station people but not known to the empire. She wants to solve the mystery of her predecessor's death. Character-driven discs opera.
A Desolation Called Peace, Martine Sequel to prior. Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass help the empire confront an alien that. Good.
The first six Murderbot Diaries books, Wells Security unit - sort of a cyborg combination of a robot and cloned human tissue - has hacked the part that forces it to comply. It mostly wants to watch soap operas, but finds itself rescuing humans. Surprisingly funny and heartwarming. Mostly novellas, so quick reads.
The Kingston Cycle trilogy, Polk Edwardian setting where magic is real but people are put in institutions for it if discovered. Each book from the vantage point of a different person, the first a psychologist who uses his powers to help his patients and seeks to discover why a witch was murdered. First is best, but all are good.
Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword & Ancillary Mercy (imperial radch trilogy), Leckie From the perspective of a warship AI dealing with a galactic empire. Feels like it could have been an inspiration for murderbot. Good.
Annihilation, Vandermeer A biologist is a member of a team trying to figure out what's happening in an area where investigative teams generally don't return from. Strangely paced, like a Lovecraft story. Wouldn't recommend to everyone. Very weird.
Gideon the Ninth, Muir Girl raised by necromancers sent to protect the head of her world as they try to unlock the secrets of an old world. Surprised by how much I liked it.
The Spare Man, Kowal The Thin Man in space - murder mystery on a space-going cruise ship. Not very deep, but enjoyable.
Piranesi, Clark Man Who lives in a world that is entirely a castle with endless halls and rooms, populated by just one other person, trying to understand his world. Interesting.
All Clear, Willis Sequel to Blackout - historians from Oxford in 2060 use time travel to see events surrounding WWII in person, but something is wrong. Not as light as some of her books, but very good.
Blind Lake, Wilson Reporters visiting a facility that uses incomprehensible AI-written systems to view life on a planet 50 light years away get caught in a lockdown that separates the people of the facility from the rest of the world. Very interesting.
Nettle and Bone, Kingfisher Fantasy - princess is sent to a convent, and eventually sets out to kill a powerful man who deserves it. Very enjoyable, and manages to be fun while also being dark.
Harrow the Ninth Sequel to Gideon the Ninth. First half is very confusing. Not an easy book to read, but well crafted and interesting.
WWW: Wake, Sawyer Blind teenage girl gets a computerized implant to restore her sight and ends up connected to a budding consciousness in webspace. Neat idea and an easy read but some parts felt unrealistic or cheesy.
The Graveyard Book, Gaiman Boy is raised in a graveyard by ghosts, protected by something else. Maybe written for teens, but wonderful regardless.
The Three Body Problem, Liu Strange things are happening in the scientific community in China. Interesting premise and an unusual book, but some things felt very unrealistic.
Saturn’s Children, Stross Humans built conscious robots to explore and develop the solar system, but they long outlast the now-extinct human race. Intrigue as one such robot gets in over her head.
The Anomaly, Le Tellier A plane from Paris to New York takes off in March and lands after severe turbulence. Then the same plane, with the same people, lands again in June. Thought provoking with well drawn characters.
The Daughter of Dr. Moreau, Moreno-Garcia Same/similar setting as The Island of, but focused on the daughter of the doctor as he conducts his experiments and his patron grows dissatisfied. Enjoyable.
Leviathan Wakes, Corey First book of The Expanse series. A war starting between people of earth, people who settled Mars, and people who settled the asteroid belt and stations. A missing person, and something strange happening. Really good.
Caliban’s War, Corey Second Expanse book. A protomolecule-based monster/soldier kills a bunch of other soldiers and everyone thinks some other government is responsible. Also very good.
Halting State, Stross A bank robbery inside an online game gets the attention of the cops - and a lot of other people. Written in 2007, set in 2017. Very interesting, even just for its take on technology.
Glasshouse, Stross In a distant future with ubiquitous wormhole technology, a man recovers from self-chosen radical memory deletion and joins a 30+ year experiment, but things aren't what they seem.
System Collapse, Wells 7th of the Murderbot Diaries. Starting basically where the 6th book ends, what to do with the colonists on the alien-infected planet, and what a rival company is trying to do.
2024
The Cloud Roads, Wells Fantasy about a loaner who can shape shift into a sort of dragon and doesn't know that he is. Enjoyable.
Passage, Willis A psychologist studying people who have had near death experiences joins a research project where they're induced, trying to figure out what they're for, what they mean. Good, but like a lot of Connie Willis books, there are too many people missing each other and too many misunderstandings. Still, very touching.
Gods of Risk, Corey Book 2.7 of The Expanse (novella). Bobby's nephew gets caught up in making drugs. Very short. Good.
Sundiver, Brin Written in 1980, the first of the Uplift series. Set in a time when humans have found there are many other intelligent, space-fairing beings in the galaxy, but nearly all were “uplifted" by another race. Everyone debates whether humans were uplifted and then abandoned by some unknown race, or are a very rare case of natural evolution. All this is the backdrop, or the fabric, of a story about the discovery of life in the sun.
Transition State, Leckie Set in the same universe as the Imperial Radch trilogy, with a couple minor characters from that as minor characters here. A guy is found abandoned on a ship as a baby, raised by adoptive parents, but is always strange (including urges to dissect people that he never acts on). Who he actually is might shake the empire, including the treaty that keeps aliens from destroying humans. Really good.
The Serpent Sea, Wells Second book of the Raksura series. The tribe (blanking on the word used internally) relocate to their ancestry home, a special giant tree, but it's dying because its seed was stolen. They go looking for it and get into trouble. Good.
Abaddon’s Gate, Corey Book 3 of The Expanse series. Rocinante crew gets hired to take a documentary crew to the ring made by the Venus protomolecule. All the other governments are sending ships too. Julie's sister Clarissa plots revenge for her father.
Hominids, Sawyer In an alternate universe, a neanderthal quantum physicist doing an experiment ends up marooned in our universe. A weird little bit of religion in the middle, but pretty interesting overall and fun to read about the speculative modern neanderthal society.
The Time Ships, Baxter Authorized sequel to “The Time Machine," by H.G. Wells. It's strange, in a way, because I of course read Wells’ work in the modern era, though it was written in 1914. Part of the charm was reading his notions of time and his commentary on class divides from this time a hundred years later, when the author has no knowledge of what happened in the intervening century. Baxter’s sequel is written from this modern era, but from the perspective of the same protagonist. Many of the advances in the sciences are captured, but it feels oddly artificial to have them observed by our early 1900s hero. Still, it's a very ambitious book, with a very broad scope, and much more commentary on the nature of man. Well worth reading.
Beggars in Spain, Kress People gene modified to no longer require sleep basically become a separate race of people. Lots of commentary on socialism, community, charity, racism, individuality, and more. Very thought provoking.
Humans, Sawyer Sequel to Hominids. A love story and a commentary on our world as seen through the eyes of a different version. Also more on the neanderthal version of it. As an ex Catholic, having a main character be matter of factly Catholic feels weird. Enjoyable sequel though.
Blindsight, Watts Strange first contact story with an enigmatic alien and a spectrum of technology-modified humans. A lot of it is an exploration of what it means to have consciousness or intelligence, and of how we're affected by language and communication. Not sure I'd call it enjoyable, but very interesting. Not a fluff piece by any means.
Startide Rising, Brin Sequel to Sundiver, set a couple hundred years later. A ship crewed by humans and dolphins has found something that could have major ramifications for the galactic races, so they're all fighting each other to get the earthlings. Very good, has aged well. Side note: I'm certain I read it when it came out in paperback, but I didn't remember it at all.
The Churn, Corey Book 3.5 of the Expanse series, a novella. Back story of Amos in Baltimore. It would have been a very different experience reading if I hadn't seen the series version - it couldn't disguise a main character because you actually see them. Semi-avoiding spoilers.
Leech, Ennes A doctor, one of many that share a group mind due to a parasite, finds its predecessor killed by a different type of parasite. Very strange, pretty dark. Thought provoking.
The Siren Depths, Wells Third book of the Raksura series. Moon’s birth court wants him back, against his will, and there's a danger facing everyone. Just as good as the prior books.
Starter Villain, Scalzi Down on his luck young man inherits his uncle's villain business. Quick, fun read. Funny!
The Host, Meyer Alien possession told from the POV of the compassionate alien. It turns out that I'm a little bit of a book snob because, as I opened the book on my Kindle and saw the blurb about it being by the author of the Twilight series (sparkly vampires), I almost abandoned it. I decided to at least start it and… I didn't hate it. The SF aspects of the story are actually pretty interesting and thought provoking. Given my understanding that Meyer is basically a romance novelist, I was surprised that the part I connected with the least well was the romance part - it's described as way overly physical (this body loves that person or could never love that other person).
Provenance, Leckie In the Imperial Radch series. Daughter in a scheming family tries a scheme of her own and gets mixed up in issues that span worlds and races. Interesting. Feels like a side story, which I guess it is.
Nona the Ninth, Muir Third of the Locked Tomb series, following Harrow the Ninth. I loved the first book, didn't love the second (challenging, interesting, not sure it was enjoyable), and liked this one better. Ending needed to be reread a couple times - confusing - but overall an interesting book.
Perdido Street Station, Meiville Elements of SF and fantasy. Set in a Victorian world (future earth, or maybe an alternate one) populated by humans and many races of aliens, some more alien than others, a scientist is hired by a bird person to give him back fight after his wings were removed as a punishment by his people. While working the problem, the scientist releases something truly horrible. It's a really evocative world and story, well imagined and well told. It brings up a lot of sadness, horror, and pity for its characters that didn't really stop, so not exactly a fun read. Long, but good.
The Watchmen, Moore Graphic novel about masked heroes being popular, then outlawed, then being systematically eliminated. Gritty, odd. It deals a lot with what constitutes the greater good and what compromises are reasonable.
How to live safely in a science fictional universe, Yu A time machine repair technician, hiding from life, tries to find his father who disappeared ten years prior, after almost inventing time travel. Amusing, short, quick read.
The City & The City, Mieville A murder victim is found in a European city that shares geography with another city. The cities aren't separated by physical borders, they overlay and are separated by more of a psychic border, and crossing from one to the other that way, breaching, is a serious crime. The detective investigating the murder uncovers things that could shake the fabric of both cities, and he has to work with a detective in the sister city to solve the crime. Very unusual and imaginative premise. Very compelling story.
The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut It's Vonnegut, so it's hard to know where to start. The richest man in the world tries to avoid a life that's predicted for him. It doesn't go the way he envisioned either way. Lots of commentary on morality, friendship, religion, love. Not flattering commentary on any of those things.
Neptune's Brood, Stross Set in the same universe as Saturn’s Children. A banker/historian chasing down old debts finds much more than she bargained for and gets many factions out for her blood, including her mother. Lots of good speculation on a galactic society without FTL travel, composed of people who are fabricated, not Born.
The Scar, Meiville Following Perdido Street Station, but not in the city and with different characters. A translator fleeing the city gets pulled into a series of unfolding conflicts while she tries to find a way home, or at least to save it. Lots of layers, and commentary on trust and manipulation.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Chambers A clerk running away from family on Mars signs onto a ship that builds wormholes, and gets a new family in the process. After recently reading books by Meiville, Vonnegut, and others, this was a more hopeful, loving story. The explanation for why all the aliens look like various earth species felt kind of thin, but it's a good story with strong relationships.
Children of Time, Tchaikovsky A project to uplift monkeys on a terraformed world, at the peak of human civilization, is sabotaged by people who don't think humans should play god. There follows a human civil war that nearly destroys civilization. A couple thousand years later, an ark ship of human remnants leaving an uninhabitable earth is heading towards that terraformed planet. This is a great book, with lots to say on intelligence, the nature of people, and both the fragility and heartiness of life.
Lonely People, America
Here's a bonus image
I was hoping someone would get this one. The hint in the second image was the silver cup.
Lyrics This is for all the lonely people Thinkin' that life has passed them by Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup And ride that highway in the sky
This is for all the single people Thinkin' that love has left them dry Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup You never know until you try
Well, I'm on my way Yes, I'm back to stay Well, I'm on my way back home (Hit it)
This is for all the lonely people Thinkin' that life has passed them by Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup Never take you down or never give you up Never know until you try
I'm curious: what makes people downvote a post here?
I noticed before that some of the entries got downvoted, and I thought it must be people thinking the image doesn't fit the song (and even that doesn't seem fair given the rules), but I'm seeing that some of these are downvoted even before we know what song it is. So I'm curious, what makes people see an entry and downvote it?
A new study suggests that eggs may be a heart healthy addition to the diet, even for people with cardiovascular disease or at risk for it. The study was small, so additional research will be needed to confirm the results.
Some excerpts from the article below. I almost didn't post it when I saw it was funded by an egg company, but it's interesting.
Researchers randomly assigned people to eat either 12 fortified eggs per week or to eat fewer than two eggs of any kind per week. People could cook the eggs however they liked.
In the study, after following participants for four months, researchers did not see any adverse effects on cardiovascular health among people who ate 12 fortified eggs per week.
For example, blood cholesterol levels were similar between people who regularly ate fortified eggs and those who ate few or no eggs.
People in the fortified egg group also had a reduction in their total cholesterol level, insulin resistance scores, and high-sensitivity troponin (a marker of heart damage). They even saw an increase in their vitamin B levels.
In addition, “there were signals of potential benefits of eating fortified eggs that warrant further investigation in larger studies,” Nouhravesh said in the release.
In particular, there were possible benefits of eating fortified eggs among older adults and those with diabetes, including a rise in HDL (“good”) cholesterol and a decrease in LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.
The results of the study, which was funded by Eggland’s Best, have not been published yet in a peer-reviewed journal, so should be viewed with caution.
Question about Perdido Street Station (minor spoiler)
I recently finished Perdido Street Station, and one minor thing that bothered me is how many of the other races were either a humanoid version of earth life (cactus person, bird person) or a literal combination of a human and something (head of a bug, body of a person). That just seems so fantastically unlikely that I wonder if any of the other books in that setting explain it. Like, is it a future earth and the races are results of generic modification in some prior era?
I liked the book pretty well, through it's not exactly uplifting. Thought provoking though.
Parnas also called out Trump allies in Congress such as former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., for spreading misinformation about the Bidens.
Pretty damning training against the inquiry by someone who participated in trying to dig up dirt on the Bidens.
Biden's third such address will be something of an on-the-job interview, as the nation's oldest president tries to quell voter concerns about his age and job performance while sharpening the contrast with Donald Trump.
That was one of the more interesting SOTU addresses I've seen. Personally, I think he said most of the things that needed to be said, and he said them reasonably well. I'm sure he's going to get some flack for attacking Trump directly (though not by name), but I was frankly glad to see it. Doing otherwise makes it seem like it's just your typical election/political disagreements, but we're past that now.
Paul Connell, who portrayed “Willy McDuff” at Willy’s Chocolate Experience, talks to WIRED about the Unknown, jelly beans, and an impossible vacuum cleaner trick.
This is the most entertaining interview I've read in years. Not sure if there's a better place to post it.