Spicy but not too Flamey

@confusedMiddleAgedDad@mastodon.social @tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Why can't people just use simple common-sense measures like furlongs per light-second?

@FaithinBones@mastodon.social @lankohr@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Actually, that's a fascinating little backwater of history. Before phonograhs and telephones, there was no way a typical Yank would hear British speech unless someone who spoke it was standing in front of them. British English evolved due to its Empire borrowing words and whatnot from its Empire; American English, isolated geographically, was frozen in amber. Things got to the point that during WWI US and UK troops had trouble communicating

@bytebro@mastodonapp.uk @X31Andy@mastodon.green @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @confusedMiddleAgedDad@mastodon.social @tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot I may check it out myself, if only to dicover why sheep would share such an odd practice with some men.

@FaithinBones@mastodon.social @lankohr@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social US and UK english had diverged far enough by the early 20th century that US English was commonly referred to as the "American language", and in fact in 1916 (I think?) H.L. Mencken actually wrote a sort of grammar-cum-style book titled "The American Language", which title was not controversial at the time. Nowadays, radio - then talking pictures, followed by TV and internet - have caused the two to converge once more.

@FaithinBones@mastodon.social @lankohr@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Good examples of late 19th century dialect can be found in some of Mark Twain's writing (Southern US, typically) and some of Ambrise Bierce's (Southwestern US, typically). Popular writing in dialect wasn't really common in any time period, so those are the only two American authors that come readily to mind. Bierce's California miners, in particular, are almost impossible to understand today - even by California natives.

@TheMNWolf@furry.engineer @kibcol1049@mstdn.social The annoying thing is that people equate gold with superior signal, but for least resistance I prefer silver, then copper. Gold is only really necessary in oxidating environments like outdoors, in a pool area, on a boat, etc.

@afreytes@mastodon.gamedev.place i generally take my coffee black, and only rarely have tea (and then i only drink sugar with a little orange pekoe added), so i look at formal etiquette like this as if it's a re-enactment of some ancient ritual performed by a vanished culture both we and the performer are only marginally familiar with; it's a curiosity, not very interesting, pointless. It would be amusing to imagine him doing this every time he has a cup of something hot, both on and off camera. He'd loathe it quickly

@TheMNWolf@furry.engineer @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Touchè i'm out in the California desert, where relative humidity above 50 is a panic-inducing event xD But i grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where we don't use sunscreen (we use naval jelly), and using cables without gold plated connectors was still a non-issue (my H-K Citation 17 preamp, Soundcraftsmen amplifier, etc. did not have gold plating on anything, yet still had cleaner sound than most stuff that can be had at any price today).

@dalias@hachyderm.io i didn't quite fully grasp what you were saying until i read the comments, but you caused a related thought to rise in my noggin, which is: to what extent are we, the corrupted, their victims as opposed to monsters of our own hubris? i entered high school in '83, and by '84 i was sipping my first Kool-Aid. By '98 or so, i was fully committed to "the online lifestyle", and only now am i looking back. i have subsidized the people you speak of handsomely. What if we all hadn't?

@Axolotl1@gaygeek.social i just assumed it was a contraction of "know of" that only the cool kids used

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social Ah, but for some of us, the abyss merely glances, then looks away, coughs, and starts looking for another use of their time.

@Kierkegaanks@beige.party @kibcol1049@mstdn.social i almost choked on my coffee again - people just have to be less witty early in the morning xD

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social This news left me bog-smacked.

@Cutsmirf11@mstdn.social Amazing!

@MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social When you reflect on this concept, things start to become clearer, so to speak. If Narcissus was so beautiful that he fell in love with his own reflection in the water of that pond, would our world be a reflection - an opposite one - of that world? Our Narcissus, Trump, beholding his own ugliness in the reflecting pool fiasco and allowing his self-loathing, which he tries to conceal, to consume and trap him, condemning him to have his every decision decided by it?

@jeffowski@mastodon.world Auto insurance is mandated because it's a necessity for pedestrians, property owners, other drivers, etc. to be made whole if the driver doesn't have the cash to do it. Having said that much, it will be obvious that this insurance is a public good, benefiting others more than the driver. It would be trivial to add a small surcharge to gasoline & car charging so that auto owners exclusively pay the cost of this insurance, and the cost would fall with no profit motive, benefiting all.

@jeffowski@mastodon.world Also, if that drunk driver, with a suspended licence, crashed into a fence or house or whatnot, it would be up to the injured party to try to get the driver to cough up personally, which again would not be necessary if anyone behind the wheel was automatically covered. It would not change the legal consequences for the driver, but it would mean certain mitigation for the injured party, someting we do NOT have now. Especially in the case of pedestrians being hit by uninsured drivers.

@PapyrusBrigade@cosocial.ca @jeffowski@mastodon.world At the risk of inciting the wrath of all and sundry, i do think that driving instruction should be optional; i drove without any legal permission for several years, self-taught, but that was a very long time ago. The benefit to this is that an incipient license holder is ridiculously careful and usually more schooled on traffic law than those who adjudicate it daily. When i finally got my license at 21, i aced both written and practical tests, and am a safe driver.

@TheLancashireman@hostux.social @Anomnomnomaly@beige.party @woo@fosstodon.org @kbsez@mstdn.social @kibcol1049@mstdn.social The three hours is mostly because of inefficient locating of people vs. goods and services. If i want a qualified doctor, for instance, that's LA. My hobby is building random electronic things from surplus equipment -- again, LA. Most things aside from staples are in the big city, so that freeway is a car park for 8 to 12 hours a day. There is mass transit by rail, but it stops 3 towns from me, and isn't for anything you can't carry.

@talk2priestess@gaygeek.social Feelin' the terpenes ::))

@bnuybot@gaygeek.social Audrey II? Is that you?

@icyx@gaygeek.social Sounds like a great idea!

@muminitaly@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Excellent points, to which i would add that any debt owed to the state not only can't be forgiven, but often is collected if one's benefits would exceed a certain amount. Here, if you have more than a few hundred dollars in cash, you don't qualify for disability payments, even if the hearing you appealed rejections two or three times to get (and have to attend in person) found that you *are* legitimately disabled, and cannot be employed. Having any assets at all is bad.

@SluttyWhovian666@gaygeek.social Erdogan and Orban were more straightforward; they just shut them down or 'nationalized' them.

@Itskilian@gaygeek.social Hope it gets better soon!

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social @titia@toot.community I grew up in the US in the 70's and 80's, if that gives a bit of context. His mom kept the household afloat somehow on her wage as a secretary, but they still lived in abject poverty, despite her wage disqualifying them for assistance. Mostly because his dad would usually take money from her, i assume.

@BenAveling@mastodon.ie And when i mention religious bias, it isn't always obvious where it comes from or why it's even a thing. An example is the ancient Greeks' Geocentric and Heliocentric theories of the universe. These competing models, derived from observation, had religious trappings laid on them over time. Then along comes Christianity, and a whole 'nother layer of mythology, and essentially a stalling of analytical thought. Had to wait 'till the 1500's for corrections to start being applied.

@notguilty@mastodon.world Doesn't look weird at all! Looks very, very nice, actually

@dbattistella@mstdn.ca The most generous interpretation of that is that they are unimaginative enough to think that the world will continue on the way it is today, with people doing the guiding and creating, using their tools to augment their intelligence rather than replace it. People don't work like that, though, and i'm pretty sure that they're banking on people letting their intelligence atrophy until they're reliant on LLM's, which are *not* AI. They are also convinced that they'll come up with GAI.

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social Another example of sacrificing users' privacy to train their in-house AI (as Meta is doing) is Google, which quietly started feeding users' photo collections and emails into their LLM's.

@awildfaerie@gaygeek.social In my hometown, Roma were restricted to living in one area of the city, and only certain professions - not by law, but by unspoken agreement amongst the residents. By the time i was born, most of the stigma and prejudice had faded, but some of its effects lingered - even as a young adult, one didn't buy a used car; they went "to see the gypsies", as that was one of the 'acceptable' trades they were allowed. Nowadays, there are no more Roma in this trade than anyone else.

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social i guess it would depend on how *many* trees were planted; the city that i grew up in could almost be considered a broadleaf forest, and was quite pleasant, even on a 100° F day. Of course, the effect would be much larger in a place that was mostly pavement. The current awareness of the role of heat, taken into account by city planners now, was rare until recently. The city i'm in now is unbearable in the summer, being mostly paved and with few trees.

@jeffowski@mastodon.world One other thought: i have been hit by a driver with a license suspended for drunk driving, had no insurance, who was actively drunk when he hit me and was carried away in handcuffs. Whilst i was paying extra for insurance against being hit by an uninsured driver and recouped a *little* of my loss, my premium skyrocketed as a result. In a nationalized system, none of this would have been necessary, since any legal driver would be made whole, and "extra" insurance wouldn't be needed.

@BrokkoGrafie A funicular! Always wanted to ride one of those :)

@BernieSanders@mastox.eu Will they be taxing net worth or merely 'income'? After all, most people look at the big number and forget/never knew most of it is in equities, which they then borrow against for tax-free income.

@Itskilian@gaygeek.social Wow! You were just as handsome even then Most people sort of just age (like me, with my salt & pepper hair ), but you've grown into your own skin so gracefully! Now that i see where you were, seeing who you've become is... well, inspirational :)

@kibcol1049@mstdn.social Or, at the very least, upbraid Trump for his boorish manners.

@lankohr@mastodon.social @FaithinBones@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social To be honest, units of measure have a very deep cultural and intellectual grasp on a culture, in that whatever was commonplace when a person was a child becomes the comparison that has 'meaning' to them. I may prefer to use metric units when doing practical things like carpentry, but in speech only Imperial units carry any impact. Someone may be two meters tall, but it only carries meaning to me as 6 feet. 2 meters is an abstraction.

@BenAveling@mastodon.ie AI doesn't have to involve theft; you can build a significant corpus of knowledge based on public domain materials, but of course the farther back one goes, the more useless the media becomes, mostly due to inaccuracy and religious bias. Extend invitations for people to add their own additions to it (and people will!) i support patents, copyright, and trademarks, although not in the form Disney has fostered in the USA. i believe extending protections to creators fosters innovation.

@studiofox@beige.party And SUPER comfortable! i have several :)

@rantingsteve@pounced-on.me Yay Douglas Adams reference!

@quixote@mastodon.nz @carnage4life@mas.to i'd say it's virtually guaranteed that that chart was assigned to an unpaid intern as one of 183 other tasks they were supposed to finish ASAP, so they likely just threw as brief a prompt as possible at the AI and then went on to the next task. Whoever made the assignment would have been responsible for proofing it, but likely couldn't be arsed to, as it was already almost cocktail hour.