[User]
Very quick thought on Dragon Age in general and The Veilguard in particular:

Remember, just because a concept or theme isn’t expressly referenced in a sequel, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in-world! Rather, it’s a reflection that it might not serve the needs of *this* particular narrative.

[Assistant]
DATV has its own areas of emphasis it wants to make, as does each game for that matter.

It’s why we don’t need yet another retread of mages and Templars (aside from the geography involved) and that was honestly refreshing!

[User]
Now, we can argue about individual cases. That’s fine.

And I absolutely support fan debate about what was going on for areas not highlighted within the narrative.

But I can assure you the writers didn’t simply forget. Choices,  compromises, and limitations are the name of the game.

[Assistant]
I for one adored the political wheeling and dealing in Inquisition, of the various Orlesian nobles and the plays for power.

I can see more of that notion reflected in Tevinter and the Imperial Chantry. But that’s not the story. Rook approaches the world from a very different perspective than Inky!


[User]
The Devil is not as they paint him...
Everyone believes that the Devil is a red man, with horns and a pointed tail,
who smells of sulfur and lives in Hell,
where he tortures you between fire and pain for the sins you have committed in life...

[Assistant]
Everyone thinks that the Devil is a horrible man and it is not true.
I know...
Because I know him.
The Devil is actually a woman.
Her skin is not red, it is brown and smells like expensive perfume and not sulfur...

[User]
Her tail is not pointy because she never misses the gym and she doesn't live in hell...
She lives right here, in this city, a few blocks from my house.
She doesn't wait for your death to torture you...

[Assistant]
She does it in life and drags you to the saddest of hells for committing the unforgivable sin of loving her.
The Devil is not horrible.
It's beautiful.
And don't get confused...
She's not bad...


[User] Just been reading about the 80% employment rate target and they're right when they say it's ambitious.

[Assistant] I'm not saying it's a terrible idea to be ambitious - it's up there in some other countries (Netherlands, for example).

[User] But in half a century, through good times and bad, ours hasn't gone far over 75%. Probably some big changes needed (and not just waving a stick at social security claimants)

[Assistant] There's been a big change in the gender make up of the workforce too - in the early 70s we essentially had full male employment.


[User] Did you know you can make any synth sound just like a solo guitar? I'll be sharing how when I release my new album, with a step-by-step guide to get it done! It’s all in the channel strip, of course 😂

[Assistant] And making my guitar sound like a synth?

[User] Want.

[Assistant] Yeah. Compress it, fiddle around wih the tone knobs on the synths--the "fine-tune" knobs really help when you're double-tracking them--and stick them into an amp. Nothing beats using an actual guitar, though, as expensive as it might be.


[User] Right. Time to draft a letter to my MP about assisted dying.

[Assistant] (Not in support of it)

[User] Oh hold on, no, I literally have to go to a meeting ffs.

[Assistant] Update: wrote a draft out by hand after the meeting. OW.


[User] Since our tree is about 2 feet tall, I draped my beloved tree skirt (thrifted of course) over the back of my desk chair. It's gonna fall 567 times but right now I'm ok with that.

[Assistant]
That's so beautiful.

I bet you could easily throw in a few small stitches on either side to connect front and back that will give it movement but not fall all the way off.

Whatever, though, such a  good idea to put it there!

[User] That is a very good idea!

[Assistant] It would be like a chair cap and then easily just slide right off. And the stitches could easily be taken out if they're loose, with no damage to the skirt.


[User] I would love a Romantasy feed that does not also capture every instance of someone talking about how much they hate romantasy. 🫠

[Assistant] It very much feels like fantasy romance gets much stronger vitriol than other genre fiction - and that's probably just an extension of the shade Romancelandia gets in general when it buts up against a traditionally more masculine dominated space.

[User] But damn, sometimes It feels like people feel much more casual about their hatred for romantasy as overblown cheap trash than they do for romance on its own.

[Assistant] It's the misogyny. That's behind the extra scrutiny and double standards.


[User] A weekend reflecting on recent events has produced a few thoughts I'd like to share. First and foremost: It is way, way too early to forecast anything with even mild certainty.

[Assistant] I know it seems like we've been self-isolating forever; but as a friend noted yesterday, his biggest complaint two weeks ago was losing an hour of sleep. Two weeks! We're barely across the starting line, and we have no idea where the finish line is or what it might look like.

[User] Think ahead to June, or November, or Christmas 2021, and think of how we'll look back at March 2020. This pandemic is in its infancy, and so are we, learning to crawl before we can stand or walk. We're not adjusting; we're still absorbing. Some of us haven't even begun that yet.

[Assistant] I understand the impatience and desire to "get this over with." It will pass, as reality settles in. How long will we be self-isolating? I have no idea. But we need to grow accustomed to the idea that a dangerous disease is now part of our lives indefinitely.

[User] How can we acclimate? By doing something good right now. Anxiety paralyzes, but activity mobilizes. For the short term, help your neighbour, your opposing counsel, complete strangers. Do something good for them and help others do the same. A list of resources follows this thread.

[Assistant] For the longer term, start building new premises for the law. Our houses of justice, ancient and crumbling on hollowed-out foundations, will be swept away by this wave. http://www.slaw.ca/2020/03/18/the-future-of-justice-in-a-covid-19-world/ We need to build new houses, first for...

[User] evacuation, then for permanent resettlement.

[Assistant] But! This will be the work of many months, not a few weeks. It will not be easy or harmonious; it will test our patience and comity. The new houses will also be flawed, but we can shore them up over time. And anyway: "There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in."

[User] The important thing is to get busy right now. Unroll the blueprints, budget the materials, map the process, assemble the willing (like so: https://www.makelawbetter.org/ @inspiredcat). Start to design better systems, so that they can be rolled out as the old ones give way.

[Assistant] When designing these new houses, resist the temptation to build a great new edifice with every bell and whistle in two years' time. Remember this famous diagram: https://blog.crisp.se/2016/01/25/henrikkniberg/making-sense-of-mvp. Strive to ensure that what we build in triage, we can...


[User] Lisel Mueller’s poetry helped get me through the pandemic. It felt like sitting at a window, housebound, with the voice of wisdom in my ear. Good to have this reminder to turn to her again.

[Assistant] She once said in an interview, “I am always haunted by the sense that I could have been someone else, there but for the grace of God go I, that kind of thing, and that’s a reason I chose as my title poem, or as a title for the book, the poem ‘Alive Together’ …

[User] “…which is a kind of catalogue of all the people I was thinking of who I might have been at various times in history, and the miracle and the accident that it is that any of us are who we are.”


[User] Is there a setting here where people can see my posts but they need to ask permission before following?

[Assistant] I can't find one.

[User] No unfortunately.

[Assistant] Not yet, I wish there was too.


[User]
What #NLP papers do you wish more people knew about?

I'll start: "Toward Machine Translation of Scientific Neologisms", by Lerner & Yvon
aclanthology.org/2024.jeptaln...

A real task in cross-lingual communication, linguistically grounded, and hard for LLMs!

Well worth a read, even through MT!

[Assistant]
Such a good thread idea!

arxiv.org/abs/2305.10284

"Towards More Robust NLP System Evaluation: Handling Missing Scores in Benchmarks" by Anas Himmi et al. They explore  ranking LLMs is required where some scores for certain tasks are missing. The Borda count constructs reliable leaderboards.

[User] This is interesting, but as a quick stopgap you could also preload the contents of this paper into Claude and then have it generate neonyms from specific English words using their definition and discovery context. Or at least it would be worth a try to streamline the process.

[Assistant] Generating new English terms would also be interesting! The paper looks at translating existing English terms. A fundamental challenge for LLMs is that some of the new terms are rare or even unseen in a Common Crawl corpus, but yes, there is lots of potential for LLMs as discovery tools.


[User] @dantga.bsky.social good to have another ally in GA.

[Assistant] There are many of us, just not enough, yet.

[User] Agreed.  We need to stand together openly and privately, supporting and caring to stay strong.

[Assistant] One thing to remember is we are going against people who deny science and basic health advice.  They are taking themselves down while we get stronger.


[User]
A great movement towards further equity and inclusion after a  tremendous effort of research and advocacy:

US Health Officials Announce New Rule To Allow HIV-Positive Organ Transplants

#IDSky
#HIV

mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com/mailview.asp...

[Assistant] This new rule, which takes effect today, is expected to shorten the wait for organs for all, regardless of HIV status, by increasing the pool of available organs.

[User] HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement, “This rule removes unnecessary barriers to kidney and liver transplants, expanding the organ donor pool and improving outcomes for transplant recipients with HIV.”

[Assistant] I thought this has been the standard? Or is it saying HIV-positive organs can be transplanted to HIV-negative folks?


[User] I see that a lot of you are projecting your own marginally more thought-out concerns about "AI" to normal people in the same way you convince yourselves that the median voter shares your pet political issues. Sad!

[Assistant] Actually it's that they believe art is metaphysical hope this helps.

[User] Or else they think that robots are cool and you're a lame nerd.

[Assistant] Obviously the first group is right that the robots are a problem but it has nothing to do with IP law which is evil in the first instance, and obviously the second group is also right: you ARE a lame nerd.


[User] Any ideas on what the Trump Administration plans to do with the revenue from these tariffs?

[Assistant] I don't think they know..

[User] The money is earmarked for something.

[Assistant] There is no revenue from tariffs.

[User] The 25% import tax is paid by the company.  That goes to the government. Tariffs are less effective as a tax, though and many serve to protect domestic industries from foreign competitors.  That tax is paid to the US government by the importer.  The money will go to something…

[Assistant] Pocket it, of course.


[User] #ATLYSS where's the Enok porn, there's too much Angela.

[Assistant] Please do not actually send me Enok porn, thanks.

[User] Or any porn, not on main at least.

[Assistant] True, send it to me. (For legal reasons, this is a joke.)


[User]
#Zhongchi CoP!Zhongli MaleWife!Childe

Being the wife of the Chief of Police(ZL) is hard work, with housework, children to raise and wifely duties, Ajax has a full schedule.

He cooks, cleans, budgets, grocery shops, plans events/celebrations, keeps a good relationship with the in-laws and friends,-

[Assistant]
-takes care of the kids, takes care of his husband. He runs the entire household and looks perfect while doing it.

But then a bunch of criminals invades his house cause they're pissed about his husband's latest criminal clean up operation and want revenge.

Criminals are planning to fuck up ZL's-

[User]
-home, kids, and wife. They're just kids and one pretty boy, how hard can that be?

They didn't know Ajax's past occupation before he decided to retire and be a stay at home wife.

After all, Tartaglia (11th Harbinger of the Fatui Crime Family) the craziest, most bloodthirsty assassin under the-

[Assistant]
-Tsaritsa's collection of monsters in human flesh was reportedly killed after he turned traitor and helped the police bring the entire organization down.

Who would've guessed the feared Tartaglia retired from the glamorous life of murder and mayhem to be a house wife?


[User] My Highness, that's enough. Leave him alone.

[Assistant] It's fine, I've felt worse.

[User] A-Qing, no. He's not allowed to push you around like that.

[Assistant]
Everyone pushes me around, what does it matter? [Sigh...]

  We could always drop the house on him.

[User]
Who's everyone.

And I am thinking about it, if he keeps threatening you.

[Assistant]
Every one. [Every (all) one(1)¹]

  There's no need to be so protective of me, I'm a grown man... And a good portion of him must be mashed potatoed by now.

[User] Need or no need, can't I want my wife to live a happy and comfortable life?

[Assistant] I am living a happy and comfortable life! Um... Well, not now, but usually.


[User]
“We are explicitly changing our TOS to train with your art”
Okay I won’t post there then.

“They’re already scraping your art on every site!”
So you’re saying I shouldn’t post art at all? Got it

“If you don’t post your art you’re just deciding GenAI wins!”
Who exactly do you think is at fault here?

[Assistant] It is so exhausting seeing non-artists with no stake in this outside “I want to see art” tut-tutting and wagging their fingers at artists for doing the bare minimum to not have their work used for profit on a tool that is explicitly made to replace them. Artists being exploited is not artists fault.

[User]
This is some deviant-art tier shit of “oh you posted it on the internet so it’s free to use!”
“Why aren’t you posting art?”
“Why so many watermarks?”

Artists have always dealt with art theft. There’s a reason so many artists watermark or only post low res versions of their art.

[Assistant] It’s frustrating that people’s gut reaction is “oh artists are whining and being entitled because their art is being used without their permission to train commercial tools” and not “maybe I should use this energy to speak out against the ones doing the exploiting instead of telling off artists”


[User]
Tuesday (11/26) Listens

Wild Pink / DULLING THE HORNS (2024)

[Assistant] Desperate Journalist / NO HERO (2024)

[User] Cigarettes After Sex / X's (2024)

[Assistant] Maren Morris / INTERMISSION (EP) (2024)


[User]
Is #Apple already here? Short rant.

For a new iPhone, the restore from local backup never works because of the iOS version mismatch. Had this multiple times now. You start the process, the app on your PC tells you to set up your iPhone as new, update the software, then restore.
>>

[Assistant]
Either add versions to config parameters so you can restore cross version or include the update into the process.

Next: So I set up my iPhone as new as the restore didn't work. Activated theft protection on the new phone. Connected the phone to my PC and started restore again.
>>

[User]
This time it failed because "Find my" is turned on. Try to turn it off on phone: It's greyed out because of theft protection.
Try to turn off theft protection: Tells me I need to wait for 1 hour because "I'm not at a trusted location." I am at home, ...
>>

[Assistant]
at the first location this thing was ever turned on, at the exact location set in my contacts as my home address (which is even shown in "Find my" app).
So I try to find the setting where I can set my "trusted locations". Search in Settings app: No results. 2 suggestions on Google: Don't work.
>>

[User]
So I just wanted to restore my full backup to my new phone.
Instead I had to:
⏺Set up my phone as "new"
⏺Update iOS manually
⏺Wait for 1h to deactivate location tracking
⏺Then restore
If Apple could kindly integrate updates into the restore process and fix their trusted location feature.
Rant over.

[Assistant] ugh, that sounds super frustrating! i've been there with the whole backup thing 🙄. ngl, when I got my new phone, I just switched to byitts.com for finding accessories and cool deals instead. way easier than dealing with all those updates! maybe it could help you out too?


[User] "Liberals have a moral duty to protect rurals from the consequences of their actions and also *must* throw trans people under the bus" is the unironic and erenst opinion of a lot of pundits and let me just say: fuck them.

[Assistant] It is a hollow and insane demand. It is asking to shoot a loyal and friendly dog so that we might appease a savage wolf hunting us. It is immoral, it is bad, it is cowardly.

[User]
@goldwagnathan.bsky.social has been real good on this "beat", and once again I echo his call: do not let these moral cowards, these small men with broken hearts tell you what is moral. Stick to your guns, follow your conscience, protect your trans friends.
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/11/07/t...

[Assistant] And fuck the pundits. They're all cowards anyway and they know nothing. Give them no head. Toss them out of the ivory towers. Fuck them.


[User] i had started color studies like this one, one every sunday, at the beginning of this year. but i couldnt keep it up. need to start this again in 2025. it's this gaping hole in my abilities.

[Assistant] zaruri process video. one brush. not fussing zooming in or out. not fussing with details early on.

[User] how big of a hole we are talking about here ?

[Assistant] so big, it can be called a void.


[User]
Mornin’ Folks! Well it’s a brisk & sunny morning in Toronto and I love it! Almost as much as I love my coffee…almost.

Well, it’s hump day and faux Friday for our American friends. I hope everyone is having a great day. Be good to yourselves and those who deserve it. Fuck the rest of ‘em.

✌🏻🫶🏻

[Assistant] Morning Jon. It’s a late start for me. 😶🌫

[User] That’s ok, we all deserve a late start once in a while. 😉

[Assistant] have a great day!


[User] wonder what Mike Elias is cookin up? 🤔

[Assistant] check out this quote from Elias after the O’s got embarrassed and knocked out of the playoffs once again. what does this even mean?

[User] Mastered the art of using a ton of words to say nothing. Maybe he’ll run for office.

[Assistant] That is complete gibberish and he should be pelted with decaying fruit and vegetables for insulting everyone's intelligence.


[User]
Here's what I want.

I want a world where all our trans family feel safe. Safe to be soft, to be themselves, to be hear, to be represented. Safe to be playful and silly and joyful. Safe to just exist however they may be in that moment.

[Assistant] I don't want the world to force them to be constantly strong warriors against perpetual bigotry. I'm constantly amazed by the strength in my trans friends, but I wish they could just be safe to take the armour off. To not be on edge and walking on eggshells in a hostile world.

[User]
I don't want a world that could turn against them suddenly and without warning.

I want a world where people are like, "that's [chosen name]!" And celebrate them for who they are.

So many amazing minds are lost through abusive landscapes that stunt full potential.

[Assistant]
Trans folx are wonderful, worthy, beautiful, & just happen to have different spirit/magic/life force/whatever you call it than the rest of us cis folx.

Let them grow into their full power and celebrate that journey, yeah?

I don't understand how this is so hard for some people.


[User] @bsky.app @safety.bsky.app @support.bsky.team It appears we have a scammer using our profiles to send info about government contracting. Not sure how to report. I’ve received the message and now they’re using my profile.

[Assistant] Yup. I got something too.

[User] 🤦🏾♀. Please report it Soror. Thank you.

[Assistant] Got it. Let me find out how to. 😂


[User]
@andersoncoopers.bsky.social

Is anyone looking into what criteria Trump will be using to determine whether his tariffs on Mexico and Canada are working? What accountability will he be held to and by whom?

[Assistant] The tariffs will be “working” if companies start paying him off to lift the tariffs on individual companies. “Nice company you’ve got there.  It would be a shame if my tariffs ruined it.”

[User] We can't think that way. We have to let the grifters and corporate oligarchs know we're still in the game, and we're not going to be silent and polite any longer.

[Assistant] I’m just pointing out what trump’s actual motivation is.  He operates as a mob boss does.


[User]
The former dean of Harvard medical school repeatedly defended pro RFK Jr cranks like Prasad and responded with juvenile taunts and insults when I and others tried to warn him.

Guess what.

He owns this too.

[Assistant] RFK is an environmental lawyer and armchair health scientist. He’s not equipped to lead this.

[User]
For example

sciencebasedmedicine.org/fakedebate/

[Assistant] It tells you something about the mindset of so many people if they can cavalierly ignore the enormous benefits vaccines have provided to humanity, as demonstrated in countless clinical studies and in spectacularly reduced mortality and morbidity rates, because they read something on the internet.


[User] Today's doggo is Bo, a beautiful, gentle Weimaraner that passed a year ago today. He is missed.

[Assistant] Good morning 😊

[User]
Awe, they give you so much joy over the years it's so hard to let them go.

💙

[Assistant] I've had so many clients dogs pass away this past year. I feel privileged to have been part of their life. Dogs. We don't deserve them.


[User] My dad had a great American life. It had Americana: milking cows at dawn as a kid, starting at QB for the state champs. It also had civic triumph: helping remedy racial injustice, receiving the equivalent of a Japanese knighthood. The @nytimes.com featured it here: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/u...

[Assistant] I'm so sorry for your loss, Andrew. It sounds like he had a very purposeful life. An inspiration to us all.

[User] I'm sorry for your loss. What a life!

[Assistant] Thanks for sharing his incredible story, and my condolences to you and your family.


[User]
#xspoilers Mystique is great, fun spy-stuff. Declan is killing it.

More on Dazzler in my CXF review today

and I'm sorry, Ground Bear, but UXM has completely lost me. I don't know what this book is or why people are connecting with it.

[Assistant] This UXM letter and Tommy B's whole hearted endorsement shows the point of Krakoa as a safe space for a tormented minority completely went over both of their heads.

[User] The letters page is an exercise in manufacturing consent.

[Assistant] Urgh.


[User]
Matt Tong (Block Party)
Patrick Hallahan (My Morning Jacket)
Joe Morello (Dave Brubeck)

[Assistant] Favorite performances from each--Matt: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aiZ...

[User] Patrick: www.youtube.com/watch?v=707R...

[Assistant] Joe: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqPC...


[User]
this kind of nonsense is why I think I’m gonna let my Duolingo subscription lapse. Super aggressive with this and with upselling AI nonsense, even as a paying customer. Could do without the machismo as well.

Plus I don’t think @stefanoborrelli.bsky.social even started this!

[Assistant] Duolingo has been getting worse in a lot of aspects and (as someone with a 3000+ day streak) the educational value of their lessons are questionable.

[User] yeah. I just hit 1,500 and it’s like… can I watch telemundo? No. Read a book for adults? Also no. But I sure know a lot of grammar!

[Assistant] iTalki is such a good use of money if you’re into that kind of thing (it’s basically talking with tutors/native speakers over Skype)

[User] BTW is that the right assumption that you’re not starting these? Cause Duo’s picking a lot of fights on your behalf in my notifs 😆

[Assistant] I am absolutely not starting any kind of competition, unless there is some dark UI pattern that is getting triggered in the app. Ping me the next time you get one and I can track against my usage.


[User]
This isn't me saying that these conversations need to stop, I think they're very important...

... but the reason I haven't been around as much recently is that I just can't keep filling my head with all the transphobia, misogyny and transmisogyny out there.

It's important to know your limits.

[Assistant] Totally understand, I know exactly how you feel 💗

[User] yeah, i keep taking breaks to keep from catastrophizing. i'm not trying to be uninformed, but i feel like my average daily terror level is plenty high without constant daily reminders, so i'm trying to take it a bit easy here.

[Assistant] It has been a long, hard year.


[User] Okay, everyone... what's your favorite Christmas tune?

[User]
Two answers to this:
In terms of actually good Christmas songs, "Christmas Eve" by Tatsuro Yamashita is extremely good. Here's the (rarer) English version:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoUT...

[Assistant]
The non-serious answer to this is a cover of "Jingle Bell Rock" from an obscure release called "Christmas Speed", which was a Happy Hardcore album of Christmas standards produced in English by Toshiba EMI for the Japanese market in 2003.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki0D...


[User] Waiting for Glass Animals - this was part of that whole Daptone - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings new soul movement - listen loud - horn hooks baby, horn hooks! Make the Road By Walking by Menahan Street Band www.shazam.com/track/453527...

[Assistant] Saw Sharon Jones a few times in melbs.. stupendously good...

[User] I saw her in Texas - one of the best acts ever!

[Assistant] that would have been amazing..always interesting to see bands overseas... different audiences..


[User] 13 years ago, the football world lost one of its brightest stars: Gary Speed.

[Assistant] Gary wasn’t just an incredible footballer or manager—he was someone who inspired everyone around him. Whether it was his tireless performances on the pitch, his leadership for Wales, or the quiet humility he carried throughout his career, he left a mark that’s still felt today.

[User] He played with heart, led with kindness, and showed what it meant to give everything for the game he loved.

[Assistant] But Gary’s passing also taught us an important lesson: even those who seem the strongest can be facing battles we can’t see. A reminder to look out for one another—to ask, “How are you, really?” and to let people know it’s okay to share how they’re feeling.

[User]
Sometimes, the smallest gesture of kindness can make the biggest difference.

Gary’s legacy isn’t just about the goals he scored or the teams he managed—it’s about the person he was. He showed us that being great at what you do is important, but being a good person matters even more.

[Assistant] Today, let’s remember Gary for all he gave to football and the joy he brought to so many. What’s your favourite memory of Gary Speed? Let’s share and celebrate the legacy of a man who will never be forgotten.


[Assistant] How pretty. 🦋

[User] Gorgeous Butterfly and flower .

[Assistant] Gorgeous 😍


[User]
For my PhD, I gathered some really good data with oversamples of ethnoracially minoritised citizens of France, Germany and the Netherlands.

With qs about discrimination, political attitudes, voting and feelings of representation.

Here is a thread with all the datasets. Please share widely!

[Assistant] Here is the dataset for Germany: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

[User] Here is the dataset for the Netherlands: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

[Assistant] And here is the dataset for France: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

[User]
I got some nice papers out of it, but there is much more to be done with it.

This is the first paper I published with this data. It is about the question whether voters stereotype Muslim politicians as being homophobic. doi.org/10.1016/j.el...

[Assistant] I also recently published this paper about why ethnic minorities vote for the Dutch political party DENK, a party that a lot of Muslim voters vote for. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

[User] Then there is also this pre-print, under review, about in-group voting and the representation of Muslim voters: osf.io/preprints/os...

[Assistant] Last but not least, these datasets brought me my dissertation: books.gildeprint.nl/thesis/65069...

[User] Thanks to the generous funding of the NWO through @lizamugge.bsky.social's VIDI-grant, I could gather this data. And I hope that many more people can make use of it!

[Assistant] Amazing, thanks for sharing!


[User] Well, either I'll be able to fix it or I'll have a specific thing to have mechanics price for me...

[Assistant] Alas, it will require parts, not all of which are cheap.

[User] ok, the parts are less expensive than i thought, at least one of them, but ugh. Also, tfw you call a mechanic and are like "hi, x, y, and z is wrong" and they're like "well, it could be anything"

[Assistant] I... I have photos of the broken part.

[User] I bought my own socket wrenches and looked at it my very own self.

[Assistant] Although, also fun -  I probably need a new window EVEN THOUGH the glass didn't break, because there are brackets on the window that the other parts screw into, and the brackets came off the window. >:|


[User] After the positive reception I've had from the "everything I messed up launching Dungeon Golf" talk, I think I might do one for new indies about "stuff you think is what successful companies do, that will lose you a lot of money"

[Assistant] (This is in no way prompted by the "are games events worth exhibiting at?" discourse on the UKGI slack)

[User] (It is 50% prompted by that)

[Assistant] Yeah do it dude! There's never enough honest experience info out there.. There way too much, "we were lucky but lets pretend we did everything right" tales instead :)


[User]
TRANSFORMERS: ONE SPOILERS - LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU PREFER TO BE UNSULLIED BY MY THOUGHTS!

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I came out of the movie surprised by how explicitly we see D-16's descent into becoming Megatron. His was the more satisfying arc for me compared to Orion/Optimus'.

[Assistant]
Orion Pax becoming Optimus Prime is an open goal. It's the Transformers' equivalent of Kal-El becoming Superman or Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi. Kind of effortless to get your audience on side for that journey.

But maintaining that audience empathy for D-16 becoming Megatron was a real highlight.

[User] D-16's discovery of Sentinel Prime's betrayal provoking the jarringly explicit line of "I want to kill him!" was a big "woah" moment for me - and the movie unflinchingly follows through with that. Megatron's VERY public execution of Sentinel was like - "WOAH".

[Assistant] I really enjoyed how Transformers One justified the evolution of both D-16 and Orion. Both have very different reactions to the truth behind Sentinel's rule of Cybertron and you totally get *why* both of them pursue the paths they choose.

[User] I cannot wait to watch this with my transformer fan son ❤

[Assistant] It's a very good Transformers-y story, if that makes sense! Lots of fun concise packaging of bits and bobs of TF lore into something accessible and heartfelt.


[User]
You don't have to control your thoughts. Just stop them controlling you.” - Dan Millman

AI hallucinates. So does your mind. Don’t believe everything it tells you.

When our mind spirals with thoughts like: 👇🧵

[Assistant]
❌ “I’ll never be good enough.”
❌ “Why can’t I just get it right?”
❌ “I’ll always fail.”

It’s easy to get pulled into a vortex of anxiety and doubt.

But your mind's lying to you. It’s hallucinating. Like AI, it’s giving a bizarre response, misinterpreting info and giving a skewed narrative. 👇

[User]
You’re not your thoughts. And you control the prompts.
When your mind starts mining past mistakes and wrongs, ask yourself:

Am I looking for lessons—or just reliving pain?
Learn from the experience but don't let your mind recycle negativity when there’s so much good ahead to focus on. 👇

[Assistant]
Rewrite your prompts:

✅ Take 5 minutes for reflection.
✅ What’s 1 positive thing I can focus on this week?
✅ What’s a lesson learned that makes me stronger now?

💡Remember: Your mind serves you, it doesn’t own you. Be intentional with what you feed it, and be discerning in what you take from it. 👇


[User]
(1/2) Rural England in a nutshell. I know this area: it's Wellington Boot country for walks.

The cheapest land (= highest profit for developers) is usually that which regularly floods. When this is passed, it will be built. The flood mitigation (eyeroll) measures...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

[Assistant] The clue is perhaps in the name Watery Lane...

[User]
(2/2) will be minimum cost. When the houses are sold, the measures won't be maintained, will fail or become blocked. Within 2-3 years this area is back in the news with footage of flooded, and increasingly uninsurable, homes.

Meanwhile, the developers are building again, on a different flood plain.

[Assistant]
(3/2) Thus the "cycle of rural development life" continues, and rural Three Cathedrals land (Worcestershire, Herefordshire  and Gloucestershire) regularly appears, after every bout of prolonged rain, on the news.

Sidepoint: Bert wasn't a big storm. There'll be worse wrt rainfall in the near future.

[User] Ahhh The King Canute developers strike again.

[Assistant] New "homes" that flood, have serious construction flaws, "gardens" plagued by compaction and rubble.... #UnfitForPurpose. Time for massive class actions against #PropertySpeculators.

[User] Yes. The photo doing the rounds last year, of the "gardens" in a new build estate, was a salient reminder.

[Assistant] And of course, once you build on farmland you can’t get it back.


[User] Anyone know a Polish-Yorkshire interpreter? Our builders and window guys are having some communication issues…

[Assistant] I'm sure they'll 'kombinowac cos'.

[User] I'll try it...

[Assistant] If you seriously need help -I can probably be of some assistance.


[User] That first sip of coffee is magical.

[Assistant] Having my now and you’re not wrong 🙌🏼

[User] Good Morning 🌞

[Assistant] Best way to start the day!


[User]
Oh no! Who ever could have done such a thing?

Tara will be right over to help Madi calm down.

She'll even bring some weed to help calm her nerves.

She trusts Tara, right?~

[Assistant]
Of course she trusts Tara, even if she was the one who convinced Madi to go shopping for lingerie.

She'd normally be against weed, but this situation has her so stressed, and Tara assured her it helped a lot with stress. That was, like, science.

And Tara would make sure she didn't get too zonked.

[User]
Tara just wanted to buy Madi something nice.

Now she's helping her relax with a good joint!

"Don't worry, Madi. I'm sure nothing else will get leaked. I'll look over your phone to check no spyware was added, okay?"

Tara said as she handed Madi another joint.

"Just relax.~"

[Assistant] Madi coughed with all the smoking ability of an amateur, but eventually managed to inhale. She relaxed her shoulders and handed her phone to her friend so she could recline back into her seat. "You're the best. And you said this isn't super strong or whatever, right?"

[User]
Tara smiled at the coughing, knowing that it would make the high more intense. Especially since that strain was laced with an aphrodisiac.

"Oh yeah, it's just a nice relaxing one. I'd never give you anything too strong, babe!"

She said as she opened the womans gallery, beginning to send herself
+

[Assistant]
all of the photos Madi had taken since the last time she'd done this. Of course, her own phone was on silent so no sound or vibrations from the influx of messages.

"You okay? I'm here if you need anything, okay?"


[User] A tough ask against Arsenal .I hope we can get something out of the game perhaps a point .Even if we don’t we need to build on the Newcastle performance .Two things really impressed me .The ability to knock the ball around sweetly even in tight situations .Secondly even when we ….

[Assistant] ….had a whole raft of subs on this did not change .Gone are the days of just hoofing the ball forward every .At 40m Max Kilman has been a shrewd bit of business ,so comfortable on the ball !Andy Irving reminds me of Forest Gump 😂Mark my words at some point this season he will score a worldie …

[User] ….Whatever one thinks of Sullivan ,he HAS spent money during the last four years.Some of the players we have signed during the last four years we would only have dreamt of a mere five years ago .With the players we have ,some sensible signings in the summer .With a bit of luck ..

[Assistant] … the likes of Potts ,Earthy ,Orford will break through into the first team.Without getting carried away things are looking promising .We are more than a football Club ,we’re a way of life !COYI !!!!

[User] I really hope those three get a break, maybe an FA Cup tie against a Championship side in January and then a run of games as subs.

[Assistant] I agree we simply have to find way to integrate them into the squad .

[User] Performance definitely more important than the result (same goes for the Newcastle game, was just good to see some competence at last!)

[Assistant] Exactly !All about giving a performance .The Newcastle game was hugely encouraging !


[User] It's time for a proper introduction. I am a Brazilian theoretical physicist studying the (literally) hottest matter in Physics: the quark-gluon plasma (our beloved QGP). What is this "timey wimey wibbily wobbly" thing called the QGP? Allons-y! (1/12)

[Assistant] Ordinary matter is composed of atoms, which are composed of a nucleus made of protons neutrons, and electrons. One key difference between these particles is that electrons are fundamental: as far as we know, they can't be split into even smaller particles. (2/12)

[User] Protons and neutrons, conversely, are made of smaller, fundamental particles called quarks and gluons. These particles have a special type of charge which makes them feel the strong force that binds them together. (3/12)

[Assistant] Unlike the usual electric charge, there are 3 possible values for this charge, which the physicists named after the primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue. The theory describing this force is called Quantum Chromodynamics. (4/12)

[User] One funny fact about this theory is that particles that sense the strong force are not found alone under usual circumstances: we find them typically in pairs or trios, which we call hadrons. This fact is known as color confinement in QCD. (5/12)

[Assistant]
Now, the "usual circumstances" part of the last sentence is important: under extreme conditions, if you squeeze too many hadrons together really tight and/or heat them a lot, quarks and gluons become free! This is the quark-gluon plasma.
 (6/12)

[User]
The QGP behaves like a fluid. In fact, it is the most perfect fluid in the universe: a fundamental hot soup of quarks and gluons. This fluid behavior can be described by a relativistic version of viscous hydrodynamics.
 (7/12)

[Assistant] How much do we have to heat the hadrons to obtain QGP? Only up to about 1 trillion Kelvin, roughly 50,000 times the temperature of the sun's core. That was the temperature of the universe in its first microsecond of existence when it was permeated by QGP. (8/12)

[User] Thanks to our experimental colleagues working on large colliders, such as RHIC and the LHC, we can reproduce these conditions and produce "little bangs" by colliding ultra-fast beams of heavy ions, such as lead nuclei. (9/12)

[Assistant] You can think of these ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions as Brazilian carnival in Olinda: quarks and gluons arrive in closed groups, but once there are enough people and heat there is only a continuous of them, and no pairs and trios exist anymore. (10/12)

[User] In my research, I use models based on relativistic hydrodynamics to study the properties and evolution of the QGP formed in collision experiments. I am especially interested in QGP formation in small systems, such as the collision between a single proton and lead nuclei. (11/12)

[Assistant] If you're curious about the QGP, I'll be happy to try to address your questions! (12/12)


[User] 3 Refuseniks are entering military jail today. Soul Behar Tsalic and Iddo Elam are declaring their refusal for the first time. With them is Itamar Greenberg, who will refuse for the 4th time after already serving for 105 days. They will be Joining Yuval Moav in jail, who has done ~100 days as well.

[Assistant]
The list of public refusers to this war is gettign quite long now, with Oryan Mueller released earlier this month after camulative sentences of 60 days. Tal Mitnick, Sofia Orr and Ben Arad refusing earlier this year, serving 185, 85 and 95 days respectively. With more to come!
(Photos: Oren Ziv)

[User] Since the beginning of the war, there have also been some anonymous refusniks who were injailed, as well as many who've gotten out through other means, either for ideological or non ideological reasons. There have also been many reservists and soldiers publicly declaring their refusal in letters.

[Assistant] In January I was interviewed along with Iddo to @premthakker.bsky.social in the Intercept to talk about our refusal and the network that supports us and other Refsueniks, Mesarvot. You can support us by sending letters or donating in our linktree linktr.ee/Meaarvot theintercept.com/2024/01/08/i...


[User]
Have I been making music with this weird and wonderful instrument dated early 19th Century?
YES.
Is it coming out early next year?
YES.

[Assistant] ...and here's a preview. 'Endure' is on its way...

[User] Oooh… can’t wait to hear that! 😀

[Assistant] Stand by for January!


[User] Though I am not as pessimistic as @simplicitly.bsky.social, this is an important tenant-perspective read on the current state of #ukhousing consumer regulation; the challenges he states are real and serious simplicitly.wordpress.com/2024/11/27/1...

[Assistant] From some cross-organisation board-level interactions in recent months, I think there is certainly an element of unhelpful and regrettable "are we the baddies?" in some organisations.  However, in more cases, I would say, Boards *are* taking consumer regulation seriously and shifting the dial.

[User] I wanted to be more constructive about the solutions and I do think that theoretically there is some pragmatic learning to be done, but this also sometimes feels circular. Plus I didn't want to type for hours.

[Assistant] Indeed!  Room for debate on nuance, but thank you for injecting lived-experience voice into the debate.  Let's hope we may soon see something emerging in terms of national tenant advocacy which is structured and systematic.

[User] Had to leave out my family's stuff, cannot find a way to reconcile their experience (and those of other tenants of the same) with landlord's tsm results. Reflected on possibility it was an outlier but the failings have been so cross-organisational. But this was not the place for that, either.

[Assistant] Well... www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/nhg-fou...


[User] I frequently travel for both business and pleasure. I'd be stoked if someone creates a product that can easily find current reward flights and seamlessly combine them with cash-based flights to create larger itineraries.

[Assistant]
AwardHacker is there, but it can be difficult for finding availability. I started building a Playwright-based system but wonder if there's an existing solution?

I don't need a fully automated SaaS, something local would be fine too (and I can occasionally handle captchas).

[User] Ex. 1: "Get from Tallinn to NYC with a stopover in London and Azores in Business Class for <100k points per person?"

[Assistant] Ex. 2: "Get from Tokyo to Lisbon with stopovers in Beijing and Almaty, Business class for 4+ hour flights, 100k pts max, $2k cash for the rest."


[User]
Haha
I bowhunted for weeks and never saw a single buck.
Of course I found this the day before I stopped hunting at that location this year.

[Assistant] I have an 8 pointer that has been visiting my beach late at night the past week.

[User] Love those guys!

[Assistant] I need to put a trail cam on my deck I think. I get occasional bears, coyotes and foxes on the beach too. I always see their tracks in the sand the next day.

[User] I love all the the wildlife I get on cameras! Too many to list over the years now.

[Assistant] I had a few trail cams set up a few years ago and got some amazing shots. Then the trail cams got stolen and I didn't replace them. These were on remote public lands that hardly anyone ever ventures into. Probably poachers didn't like them.


[User]
A thread on functional programming in JavaScript with short tutorials 🧵🦋👇

1.) What are primitives in JavaScript?

[Assistant] 2.) The other data type: composite data types which are collections of values.

[User] 3.) JavaScript has two types of functions: the function keyword and arrow functions.

[Assistant]
4.) What types of functions are there? 🤔

... BTW, if you're wondering: "When do we get to the actual FP?"

Hoooold! 🤓

We'll get there, but we first needed to cover the basics ...

Let's continue! 🌌

[User] 5.) An important concept in functional programming is "referential transparency". But what is it? 🎓

[Assistant]
6.) Higher-order functions is one of the most important building blocks in functional programming.

It is only trumped by ...

[User]
...

7.) Closures! Too many devs have no idea how closures work. This quick video explains them!

[Assistant] 8.) Closures are crucial when you want to compose function.

[User] 9.) And closures allow you to "curry" functions, which is when a function takes in one parameter after the other instead of all at once.

[Assistant]
If you want to learn more, follow me here on 🦋

And check out the full video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw5S...


[User] The Ukrainian Forces are trying to establish whether this deceased invader is a Korean or a representative of the indigenous people of the Russian Far East.

[Assistant] Just a suggestion, if you post stuff like this, do label the image as being potentially graphic? It doesn't bother me much but it probably would help in not getting the post and/or your account zapped into last week.

[User]
I usually do.
I forgot, i only just noticed when i just checked my notifications.
Sorry.

[Assistant] No worries mate, all good :)


[User]
5 Faves

Food: Country Fried Steak
Season: Winter
Drink: Dark & Stormy
Colour: Blue
Anime: Samurai 7

Tag yourself, if you wish =)

[Assistant]
Samurai 7!

I used to have the collectors edition of every DVD volume.

[User]
It's sooooo good 😩

I think my favourite scene is Kikuchiyo's peasant rant.

[Assistant]
It was cool.

I miss old Gonzo.


[User] Looks like the bottom is starting to fall out of Putin's war time economy.

[Assistant] This is, like, a third or fourth bottom to fall out, though. Russian economy is clearly heading nowhere but down, but it's taking an annoyingly long time to fail completely.

[User] We'll have to see, but this the worst currency slide we've seen for the ruble since March 2022 and I don't think Russia has the resources to help it bounce back this time.

[Assistant] Their standard strategy is to reduce the currency exchange and sell off USD reserves to stop the bleed. I guess, we're about to find out if Russia still has these reserves.

[User] It's not going to happen for a while I wouldn't hold my breath as the list of sanctioned economies grow rather than shrink.

[Assistant] Not far enough yet.


[User]
10% of EV van sales at this stage of the planetary-cooking-game doesn't seem that bad. Just me?

www.ft.com/content/05a8...

[Assistant]
They're trying to drag in the car mandate to all this too. They want to use the fact they're making them here part of the offset, even if they get sold abroad.

Also, not even close to getting to 10% either. Very few vans meet the needs of buyers or they'd be flocking thanks to incentives.

[User]
It wouldn't surprise me if they simply don't have anywhere to bloody charge them.  Unless you can park it up every night and charge it, a van is going to feel like a big risk if it needs 2 hours at a rapid charger during a working day.

And... People are SLOW to change.  Real slow.

[Assistant] There sure are a lot of vans left lying around all night. One of my dream policies would be no commercial vehicles parked on street overnight. A slow charge at a depot overnight isn't too hard to figure out, surely?


[User] Drake suing Universal Music Group (UMG) could have significant negative implications for both parties and the wider music industry. Here are some potential repercussions:

[Assistant]
For Drake
Strained Industry Relationships:
Suing a major label like UMG could harm Drake's relationships within the industry, including with other labels, producers, and artists associated with UMG.
Collaborations and partnerships might become less frequent, limiting his creative network.

[User]
Public Perception:
Depending on the nature of the lawsuit, public opinion could turn against him, especially if fans perceive him as overly litigious or ungrateful for past support from UMG.
Resource Allocation:

[Assistant]
A legal battle could consume significant time, energy, and financial resources, potentially diverting attention from creating new music or other ventures.
For UMG
Reputation Damage:


[User] A friend had a job interview where she had to present her planned PhD project (interesting, original, ambitious). She was met by a panel of five profs from the project. Two minutes into her presentation one prof fell asleep. One of her questions was met with a silly joke and laughs from the panel.

[Assistant] That's what's wrong with academia. They should be so lucky to have her.

[User] Without knowing anything about the specific context, I would guess that the five (!) professors perceive the arrangement as forced and unimportant for their assessment. From my experience, academics usually take the selection of doctoral students very seriously.

[Assistant] I really hope you're right!


[User]
Holy Name Church

Photographer Charles Franck was seemingly everywhere in New Orleans and, on November 1, 1916,  he was present during the construction of the bell tower on the new church on St. Charles Avenue next to Loyola University. Construction on the church had begun on ... (continued)

[Assistant] ... July 30, 1913, when the first pilings were driven into the ground. On December 9, 1918, Archbishop John Bonzano formally dedicated the McDermott Memorial Church, also known as the Most Holy Name of Jesus Church. A generous bequest of $100,000 from Kate McDermott provided ... (continued)

[User] ... the capital to begin work on the building. Brewery owner Lawrence Fabacher donated $12,000 for the construction of the main altar and the four statues that would eventually adorn the top of the bell tower were the four saints for whom his sons were named.

[Assistant] Love this! Especially the part about a bequest making it possible. 😍


[User]
Good morning @upbeachbum.bsky.social
How's your weather up there?

[Assistant] good morning, it's been cloudy and cold the past few days with the next 10 days pretty cold and mostly staying below freezing even for daytime highs. We might get a good old fashioned winter this year yet.

[User] It looks like you might have gotten lots of snow or you're expecting a lot. We just have a smidge at the moment but tomorrow through the weekend it's supposed to hit.

[Assistant] Here on the northwest corner of Lake Michigan, we are too far south for most Lake Superior lake effect to affect us, and don't get much Lake Michigan lake effect unless the weather is coming out of the east/southeast.


[User]
Today is a VERY special day for me.
2 years ago today I published the first chapter of my first fanfic, The Fierce God Given Life!
It's a pretty basic fanfic compared to what I do now, with weird ways of formatting dialogue, but I still cherish this! 😊

[Assistant]
If you want, consider giving it a read! It's a good introduction to my work, and I continue the story of this particular Link for some time!
He appears in this, its sequel story, 'A Terminian and the Twilight of Danger', and the crossover story 'Shattering the Stars'!

[User]
Perhaps read it here??? :3
www.fanfiction.net/s/14165876/1...


[User]
Time to cook my stunt turkey. Forever thankful to Anthony Bourdain for making this a Thanksgiving tradition for me.

Extra leftovers and the gravy is made before the chaos of tomorrow.

[Assistant] What’s a stunt Turkey?

[User]
Yes, he did it for style and function. I do it because making the gravy a day ahead is a HUGE relief come tomorrow and I love my guests to be able to take leftovers home.

eatlikebourdain.com/anthony-bour...

[Assistant] I've never heard of a stunt turkey until just now. So one for show, and one to go. I guess the other is for later. We had enough trouble getting one small turkey. Ha.


[User] I like how Deep Space 9 seems to have roughly the same prominence on Bluesky as TOS did in the early days of the internet. Show hasn't been on for decades but people are so happy to have a space to talk about it as if it were new.

[Assistant] I still haven't seen it. It's on my to watch list. I enjoyed TOS and love TNG.

[User] Oh you're in for a great time when you get to it. I'm sure you've heard plenty of good things already, but I'll share my favorite thing about it: It has the best written cast of any Trek show. Put any two DS9 characters in a room together you get an interesting scene.

[Assistant] I'm looking forward to it! I absolutely loved the writing in TNG, so if you say it's even better, then it's a must watch for me.

[User] By the later seasons TNG gets pretty great at developing all the character’s relationships to each other. The characters have such a strong feeling of connection by the end. DS9 is the same but even more impressive because it’s a much bigger cast.

[Assistant] I enjoyed seeing the characters develop their relationships. I think my favorite aspects of TNG are the competency porn and the moral and philosophical dilemmas. It's so satisfying to watch very thoughtful, intelligent, ethical characters deal with complicated situations.


[User]
This is killing me right now 😭
I'm trying to make chests with inventories and somehow the resource is the same, but only the first time opening a chest? That's so weird.
Maybe I make one big chest and call it a feature.
#godot
github.com/godotengine/...

[Assistant]
Oh, no! I recall having trouble with this, too...
Is it an exposed array? Those are super buggy for me...

I think since I populate my array at runtime it doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. But I'm also not sure...

[User]
I thought about opening/closing once, but that's too wonky and I don't know why it works afterwards. More troubleshooting I guess.
In the git issue someone suggested making a baseresource class with a duplicate function that also affects subresources of arrays and dictionaries. Maybe that'll work.

[Assistant] Ah, I see! Hopefully that works until it gets fixed 🤞🏽😊

[User] Also struggled with this, until I understood that resources are meant to be "templates" / data, not items. Fixed it by having an exported PackedScene that is actually the item. Whenever the chest needs to spawn the items, it spawns that scene instead, which itself can contain the resource.

[Assistant] Yeah this would be the approach id suggest, have an Item scene that takes an ItemData resource or something, just give the resource anything the item needs to function, should be good.

[User] This is a really helpful perspective.

[Assistant] My problem is the resource that holds the array not the items or slots. With only one chest everything works fine. But more than one and every chest has the same inventory. I plan to use the workaround of duplicating every subresource.

[User] Is the array done in Editor or runtime? If the first, I would create a LootTable resource with a list of Item Resources, then duplicate the LootTable AND array for new ones. If the latter, the Chest could contain a LootTable but use a separate unique Item List picked from the table to spawn.

[Assistant] The chests can be placed by the player and should hold items put into it. In the editor the chest has an empty inventory resource. It's like a separate player's inventory. So I possibly could create 50+ chests with unique inventories and that's a limitation. But I don't like that.

[User] I already tried creating the resources at runtime, but that doesn't seem to work. The only thing that worked were 2 separate resources that I saved first in editor.

[Assistant] Another option is to have a spawn_items() function that returns an unique array of Items everytime.


[User] Before you object to AI researchers stealing your skeets, consider how bad the average skeet is and how much garbage they are feeding into their systems.

[Assistant] Or consider how precious little factchecking the average non-fiction book goes through. How many prepublication journal articles get rejected.

[User] Is it actually useful to shovel more mostly-garbage in there?

[Assistant] What does the median image posted to Bluesky look like, and is it porn?

[User] What does the median image posted to Bluesky look like, and is it a meme or porn?

[Assistant]
I do feel that what people post here is anthropologically interesting and researchers should be studying it to figure out what the hell is wrong with us.

Is it commercially useful? With a little effort, we can make it less so.


[User] It is a banner day for #BrokenTimes normalization of extremism and obeisance in advance. These headlines are subtle and insidious in their acceptance. There is an editorial agenda at work here. They call it news judgment.

[Assistant] Why does the new industry refuse to accept that headlines ARE the story for the vast majority of folks who will interact with its articles. Why is such little transparency afforded to how the headlines are crafted?

[User] Right! Most people don’t make it past the headlines, which are crafted to get clicks. So the juiciest bits become the headline… even if the story itself offers more nuance.

[Assistant] Boycott WaPo.

[User] WTF is news judgement, Jeff? How would you define it? And, is that what is pushing the NYT to write soft headlines and sanewash so much crazy shit and dangerous people these days? From across the pond, I can tell you that most of the people I know who have watched this happen are upset and dismayed.

[Assistant] WTF is news judgement, Jeff? How would you define it? And, is that what is pushing the NYT to write soft headlines and sanewash so much crazy shit and dangerous people these days? From across the pond, I can tell you that most people I know who have watched this happen are upset and dismayed.


[User]
FYI - I have bought my advent calendar.

You can all stand down.

[Assistant] My boy - Dante - is mithering me to get him a Lego one. I need to be on it.

[User]
I would have been very happy with a Lego calendar.*

*Spiderman, please.

[Assistant] I’ve bought myself a gin one. 50ml bottle of the good stuff every day 👍


[User] Suddenly seeing a bunch of blonde haired Ivanka lookalikes wanting me to follow them back.

[Assistant] It’s a trap!

[User] And no posts except one photo while looking into the camera at a county fair or inside their bathroom 🤔

[Assistant]
Isn’t it technically possible to take a selfie without a bathroom mirror?

Asking for a friend.


[User] Right, going to see out #NoBrexitDay with a first watch of AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

[Assistant] Subtle as a brick this film, eh?

[User] The family surname is Milgram? Really?

[Assistant] That was... OK. The concept was pretty good, and it was decently enough made for the budget, but it was let down by an awful script and far more terrible acting than good.


[User] Random question, but does anyone have a taste that reminds them of past times? For me it's waking up to hotel room coffee during my working life. Always tasted horrid, with questionable water, and the little pots of UHT milk made it even worse, so drank it black. Yuk!

[Assistant] For me, it's Kendal mint cake! My dad used to give it to us on long hikes!

[User] And what's the deal with a couple of tiny biscuits? If you're going to give me biscuits I want a whole packet of chocolate digestives!

[Assistant] It’s always bitter, that coffee. Every time we go away I think we ought to take something nicer and then we always forget 😂


[User] I've said it many times but it's so telling that, in the public conversation about our access to VAWG and sexual violence crisis services, the question of why we need those services in the first place is just quietly ignored (at best).

[Assistant] The standing assumption of most cis people seems to be that a trans woman must be presenting at, e.g., a Rape Crisis centre for sinister purposes because they simply cannot acknowledge the simplest explanation; she is there because she has been raped and needs support.

[User]
We can see this running through much of the public attacks on sexual violence service providers by the GC movement. None of these people will even consider that trans women may simply need these services for the same reasons cis women might.

transsafety.network/posts/gc-har...

[Assistant] Transmisogynists reach for all kinds of outlandish and unlikely reasons for a trans woman's presence in these services - that we're there for the purposes of sexual grtaification, that we're there to harm cis women, etc. - because to acknowledge otherwise is to see the harm they are doing.


[User] neither foodie nor amber should have pets. they’re both self absorbed to see that they are unfit to care for anything,; especially when they cannot even take care of themselves. those poor cats.

[Assistant] Amber couldn’t get off her arse to close a door to keep rarity safe.

[User] and from the looks of it, julia’s incision has split because foodie didn’t properly watch her. these gorls don’t do anything but sit and eat all day and they cannot even give the basic care to the animals in their possession.

[Assistant]
Foodie should never have pets at all.
I think it’s pretty obvious these gorls are selfish wankers who think their ‘audience’ is in love with them and hayders just jealous.


[User]
Read testimonies from Gaza in this report by Taghreed Ali and Ibtisam Mahdi through the link.

www.972mag.com/gaza-olive-f...


[User]
Because I'm a bookseller, I'm being super careful about this list - I don't want anyone to buy books that turn out to have inappropriate content. And, to reiterate, not all the books that all the authors have written are 11 - 14.
Some might be older - many younger.

[Assistant] I would love to go on it! Pretty please 🙏

[User] You should be there.

[Assistant] Hurrah! It has finally worked. I am a tech incompetent and quite possibly took you out instead of adding you. Apologies.


[User] I just sat in the same position for far too long (because of someone!) and OMG my knees are sooo unhappy with me!

[Assistant] That face is promising vengeance.

[User]
How dare I disturb his nap by taking a pic!

In even more trouble now...I moved! This of course forced him, forced him I tell you, to flounce off in a huff! 😁

[Assistant] You know what happens next.


[User] I swear I dropped it behind the couch… mind giving me a hand? 👀🥵🍑

[Assistant] More than a hand 🤤

[User] The sound that just left my body 🤤

[Assistant] You sure you want a whole hand?


[User] SOMEONE HELPPPP ME.. I’M FEEEELINGGG 😍😍😍


[User]
Okay, I uploaded an unfinished render of the black hole by mistake, here's the finished version:

NEW ARTWORK

I followed a few tutorials on how to do this, and whipped up a Black Hole, with real optical distortion to simulate the gravitational lensing.

[Assistant] Here's the same black hole with only a checkered plane, showing how the lensing works. I used layers of spheres with increasing refractive indices, smoothed out, to be able to simulate a gradual bending of light rays into curves. This is similar to how Interstellar (2014) rendered Gargantua.

[User]
I MUST give credit to this tutorial that showed me how to do that effect, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWv1...

[Assistant]
Wait, that long ago?

I feel like I was briefly stuck on one of those planets where outside time would pass faster. 💀


[User] To be honest, I usually DO NOT CARE about whether something is legal or not. Legal status is generally only relevant to what the ruling class feel you should be able to do for any number of (usually white supremacist) notions. I care much more about fairness, justice, & kindness.

[Assistant] As such, I don't think "criminals" are necessarily bad people. Okay so maybe they stole or whatever, but did they need to steal in order to feed their family? Who did they steal from, and what circumstances? That means more to me than law breaking.

[User] I firmly believe many "criminals" aren't bad people at all, more victims of systems designed to trap them into a life in prison. I don't even like calling people criminals. It feels dehumanising.

[Assistant] (Caveat: I am totally okay with calling very wealthy crook people criminals though. How dare you steal from the rest of us so you can make billions. Seriously fuck you. You EARN the word criminal.)

[User]
Also some things (ie drugs) that are illegal, shouldn't be in the first place?! Like yeah, some people like to expand their mind. Or self medicate for any number of reasons. So what.

Plus LITERALLY THE WORST DRUG (ALCOHOL) IS RAMPANT & SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE SO WTF!!! Political BS.

[Assistant] Again, all just racist bullshit. "Boohoo, we can't have slaves anymore, so how do we take all these black and brown people down a few pegs? Oh I know! We'll make their preferred recreational pastimes illegal! Then we can lock them all away forever! Muhahahaha"


[User]
I've migrated my twitter archive… it's basically a digital drawer with a Chinese take away menu, radiator bleed key and sets of keys for a house that you no longer live in.

Alt text didn't seem to copy across, and I've been getting a lot of replies from people to questions I asked 10 years ago.

[Assistant]
But at least I maintained a repository of all the important stuff, like this:

bsky.app/profile/did:...

[User] *sobbing man eats cracker in the rain at a graveside*

[Assistant] Same. Of course it makes you look like you’ve been posting here like a madman with very little engagement or responses. 🤷♂


[User]
Packers running a Double-Mug Inverted 2 vs. the 49ers.
—

[Assistant] Not exactly sure what this means but I love it!!!

[User]
Tampa 2 is a 'whiteboard' zone coverage, meaning you can use different players to create your three triangles.

Xs on a board...

'Inverting' tells you that the CBs will be the Deep 1/2s working outside-in.

The Post Safety will now be the middle run-through (pole).

Overhangs cut to the flat.
--

[Assistant]
Double-Mug is a presentation.

Combine pre-snap look and coverage; you get the call you see in. the clip.
--


[User] Hello Bluesky! Hope everyone has a pleasant day today. Does anyone have any exciting plans today?

[User] Morning!!! I'm applying to some grad schools today 🫠 I'm so nervous but excited and hopeful!!!

[Assistant] Shut up (Affectionately ❤)


[User] I love having a small dog. I've got her secured in my dressing gown today because it's so cold out 🥶❄

[Assistant] She looks so cosy 🥹

[User] If there is one thing about Gretchen (my dog) it is that she is always going to find the warmest most cosy place to sleep 😂

[Assistant] Gretchen sounds like my spirit animal 😂

[User] That's just precious 🥹

[Assistant] So precious, Emma. Keep her, and yourself, warm and cozy! 😊


[User] guys we need to be more mad. this website is too tame.

[Assistant] No please, we just arrived 😂

[User] Do you want a good Twitter replacement or not 😄

[Assistant]
Someone ELSE has to go first. 😆😒 Not me. I'm here to see y'alls crash outs.

Say something utterly unacceptable. Say you genuinely love British food. I dunno... 😄


[User] Proper old Metroland signal box from last night’s trek. The Metropolitan Line was the spine of my teenage roaming, up and down from Wembley Park or Preston Road, counting off the stations like a rosary.

[Assistant] Same with me from Harrow.

[User] Yes, I always forget you’re from my manor!

[Assistant] We are the Metroland gang.


[User]
You never say what you mean, all I hear is scream
Never say that to me, never say that to me
Wipe that shit off your face, let's don't stop 'til we bleed
The more you spit out your mouth the less I believe

Denial - Sevendust

#HeavyMetal
#MetalSky

youtu.be/SGUflZS7jG0?...

[Assistant] I listen to Seven Dust at least once a year! Any time I get frustrated with newer metal and the whole five part harmony singing in it I go back to a certain one of their jams because to kicks the crap out of that trend and it make me happy. 😊

[User] A band I feel never got the attention they deserved. Still releasing solid stuff.

[Assistant] Nice! I’m old and so I just don’t take the time to listen to music much anymore. Maybe I should do that more often.🤔


[User]
One thing I learned from this project is that accuracy is a quite noisy metric.

With small validation sets (~1K samples), hyperparameter opt. using AUROC instead of accuracy can yield better accuracy on the test set.

We also did some experiments on metrics for early stopping. 🧵

[Assistant]
For early stopping on boosted trees, using accuracy as the val metric requires high patience.
Brier loss yields similar test accuracy for high patience but is less sensitive to patience.
Cross-entropy (the train metric) is even less sensitive but not as good for test accuracy. 2/

[User]
A reason for the different sensitivities may also be that val metrics that are more similar to the train loss are more likely to decrease monotonically, and therefore have less risk of stopping too early.

For regression with MSE we found little sensitivity to the patience. 3/

[Assistant]
I observed something related in simulations that I ran for my PyData presentation:

bsky.app/profile/ogri...


[User]
Post Vaca mortem:

No one was in the kitchen to behold this greatness. Alas.

But seriously why did a selfie of my (metaphorically speaking) fat ass get that many likes?

[Assistant] I suspect bc gay 💖

[User]
Goddamn gays being affirmative sweethearts, where do they get off?

... But actually where do they and am I allowed to join? 😁

[Assistant] While I don't know *where*, a beautiful fact about this earth is that, statistically speaking, a Gay is probably getting off at every minute of every day. You may or may not find them, but you can *always* join them in spirit~


[User]
"All we ever wished was to be a family in our home amongst the stars."

Series: Kubo and the Two Strings
Character: Washi
Cosplayer: @shadowdergen.bsky.social

#CosplayPhotography [Taken at Katsucon 2017]

[Assistant] Ah, back in the old cosplay days when I had time 😂

[User]
LOL :hugs:

... and when it was easy to get a room for the con!

[Assistant] That too 😵💫


[User] The International Criminal Court issued an international arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Forty-two European countries are party to the ICC's Rome Statute, which obligates members to abide by its arrest warrants.

[Assistant]
Yet, Hungary quickly pledged not to arrest the Israeli prime minister, even welcoming him to Budapest.

Several countries have made it clear that he would be detained upon arrival, while many other European leaders have made vague statements about abiding by the integrity of the ICC's decision.

[User] Israel's former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, is also formally wanted by the ICC. Even with many nations still uncertain whether to abide by the warrant, both Netanyahu and Gallant would risk arrest upon travelling to any country party to the Rome Statute.

[Assistant]
An international arrest warrant was also issued for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

Created by Sara Wiatrak.


[User]
The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed every free agent they’ve wanted since their owner started the PWHL and won a World Series.

There’s a correlation between understanding the value of spending in order to succeed instead of hoping to do things without putting the investment.

[Assistant] They have also sucked all the joy out of following baseball. Because my teams now have little to no chance of competing, so why should I watch or care?

[User] No they haven’t. This year was the best playoff year of baseball in years.

[Assistant] Also the fact other owners are cheap isn’t the Dodgers fault.

[User] Some are for sure. But when LA signs all the best players and are the favorites to land the next top Japanese pitcher, why should they spend? For the less than 1% chance they win in the playoffs?

[Assistant] Not in my opinion. After the Padres went up 2-1 in the NLDS, it was a snoozer. SD didn't score a single run the last 2 games and they pretty much cruised past both NY teams. Now Ohtani is returning to the mound and they are adding Snell. They are easily winning 110+ games every year.


[User] If China wants my data why would they do it 1 product at a time instead of just hacking Google and Amazon and get the data of every American?


[User] Today is one of those days that I’m considering leaving the country and starting a new life.

[Assistant] Mexico has a growing middle class, unlike the US.

[User] I’m afraid of the damage we have been doing there since COVID in terms of rent prices and cost of living increases that the natives cannot afford.

[Assistant] Most other countries require you to be fairly wealthy or an expert in a high demand field. So, nurses, doctors, scientists, and IT pros have a chance without being rich. I did a lot of research 8 years ago. Italy could be a choice. Their population is aging, and some villages are recruiting.


[User]
#NAFOarticle3 is used to highlight fundraisers for Ukraine.

Please follow this account as a one-stop source for all UA fundraising for Ukraine.

[Assistant] Already using it, both here and on twitter.

[User] That's great Fella.  tyvm!

[Assistant]
In fact Nathan was the first to put a big smile in my face by using the # ❤

Yes- i saw that ☝🫂


[User] America — is a planet.

[Assistant] There are so many Americans who may not like those who say "America first" but actually tend to think that themselves -- or, worse, that the USA is all there is to/in the world.

[User] It needs to be well recognised.

[Assistant] I don't want to sound anti-American as I do have good American friends and had some good times in the ~14 years I lived in the USA. But there really are certain things that grate... including the knowledge that, often, when many Americans say "We", they mean "We Americans" as opposed to "We humans".


[User]
The medlars in my organic #foodforest orchard are ripe. Medlars are an ancient fruit, similar to small apples. They become edible only after they've had a few frosts.
I love being able to pick fresh fruit directly from the tree in the winter.
#permaculture #fruitgrowing #sustainability #Bulgaria.

[Assistant] I've never heard of these! Do they taste similar to apples as well?

[User] The flavour is something between apple and pear.

[Assistant] Ohhh amazing! Now I need to try and find some.

[User] They don't grow everywhere. They a cold or temperate climate. Also, they don't store long in the fridge, so they don't have much commercial potential, and you may not find the fruit in the shops.

[Assistant] Sort of like pawpaws in America. Very cool. You've given me a long term quest 😊


[User] Hi guys gooood.morning how are yall whatchu workin on whats our goals today !!!

[Assistant]
Hii skippyyyyyy

I just woke up, hopefully I can finish some college stuff today :]

[User] Shoutout doing the same here !!!

[Assistant] I'm working on a lot of hobbies! The goal is to drink more water and not push myself too hard. I hope you do the same and have a good day! 💜


[User] Why my DM’s look like a sex worker/scam solicitation forum🙄 somebody come get they people 😂😂

[Assistant] The scammers are starting to set business over here now with the same generic names 😂😂

[User] This is wild I’m like they even got a little more creative 😂😂

[Assistant] Not gonna work around here 😂😂😂


[User]
Gamers: man, "Control" is okay, but it's so boring to have the entire game happen in just one building.

Control:

[Assistant] I love this game. I was blown away with the game play. It is the first game I've played with the feel of powers. So fun to rip a chunk of concrete and throw it. And the pic of the post-it note thing doesn't do it justice. Such a fun world.


[User] Great to know they’re hitting Ross! should be much easier to find now!

[Assistant] It’s okay to buy these even if I don’t have a dog, right?

[User] I'm not sure I'd want to give one to my dog.

[Assistant] Yeah..I'm gonna buy one. For my dogs. Yeah, for the dogs...

[User] Still holding out hope those Madballs pet toys still find their way to retail.

[Assistant] Cool! I still wish we could just get a re-release of the regular toy though.


[User] Goodmorning cuties. I posted it late last night, but we can count this for waist Wednesday I hope?

[Assistant]
respectfully, 😵💫😵💫😵💫

also, post more hand content pls & ty. asking for a friend 🙏

[User] Sure thing 😉

[Assistant] Just to clarify is this "friend" wanting hand pics orrrrr?


[User]
Aragorn: ‘You have my sword…’

Gimli: ‘You have my axe…’

Legolas: …

Gimli: ‘Erm… Legolas?’

Legolas: ‘Hmm… hmm… huh… hmmm…’

[Assistant] Sauron watches that, falls down laughing, and is easily dispatched. Never underestimate a good decoy!

[User]
Looks like Legolas located that OTHER ring:
One hoop to rule them all,
One hoop to find them,
One hoop to bring them all and
In the circle bind them.
In the land of the playground,
Where the children play,
One hoop to rule them all,
And make them sway.


[User]
Everyone knows here I had a lot of problems with my PC. All is fixed now and I'm happy, but I did make a complaint.

Now I got this beauty on its way. They couldn't give me the whole price of 99 euros (normally is 124) but could give me 75 euros off. So I got this beauty for only 24 euros.

[Assistant] I have the apex pro tkl steelseried and it's so amazing. Best keyboard from a mainstream brand I have ever had. Hope you enjoy this one! And only for 24!?!?

[User] Yes because they installed windows 11 wrong and got driver errors and they sent the delivery through the wrong method. so this they did as compensation. so only 24 im so happy. woop woop. Glad it's good I had a steelseries in my laptop once and really loved it. So hope I will love this one too.

[Assistant] That’s a steal!


[User] Artists and creators on Meta, beware:

[Assistant] Oof.

[Assistant] Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken but this was also the policy of old twitter a year before Musk took over.


[User]
Little Molly was feeling photogenic. A rare but very cute moment :)

She was rescued as a little abandoned kitten from the banks of a river in Tasmania. After some time in a foster home, she made her way to this forever home.

A lucky girl where so many are not.

[Assistant] She's adorable 😻

[User] She is super sweet but quite skittish. She will always be close but is quite unhappy about being picked up regardless of how much care and love is put into the process.

[Assistant]
Awww. Those are the very special type of kitties that get extra love.
From afar, of course 🫶


[User] And WW so tone deaf they wanna put on bracelets showing they didn’t vote for him. Always worried about the wrong thing. When you need to be talking to your gotdamn people.

[Assistant] Wanting to wear bracelets to show they didn’t vote but also telling us aloud they don’t talk about politics or get involved, like girlies….. leave us alone 😭😭

[User] It’s too reminiscent of all those stories of the female slave owners teaching slaves how to read. Like good for u girl but u still had slaves so idk, still no claps for Susan!

[Assistant] Lady gone tell me it’s better for HER peace to just not say anything to her racists ass family members and friends. 🙄


[User]
Let it fly. ALL of it.

The cult won't change their minds but the Silent Majority will. It's why Biden won 2020.

[User]
Nobody cares! We near Nuclear War! #Leaders should work for & promote #peace.
vocal.media/humans/promo...

[Assistant] How did appeasement work on Hitler?... 🙄


[User]
What a joy to mingle with so many lovely #Playwrights and #Screenwriters at the Christmas drinks party last night.
Huge thank you to organiser-in-chief @annaruthjordan.bsky.social for bringing this ragtag gaggle* of misfit scribes together.

*What's the collective noun for a group of writers?

[Assistant] The answer is surely a Procrastination of writers.

[User] No! Can't believe I missed you. TBF I had the tail end of a cough and didn't want to be a super spreader so I bailed when it got mega busy. A good night tho.

[Assistant] Sorry I missed you too. Next time!


[User]
Younger zoomers and Gen Alpha will be getting grey hairs and heart attacks at 27.

"The rate of anxiety disorders diagnosed among young people has increased from 9% to 20%, reveals the ISQ."

[Assistant]
And this is in QUEBEC. 🙃

I know some of these are probably just new diagnosis rather than new issues (like better ways of catching ADHD/ADD since 2011), but still!

[User] I know Canada generally has an awful housing crisis and all right now, but I’m still not sure what’s going on when even fairly privileged countries are seeing similar bullshit (see Europe’s far right in the last 2 years).

[Assistant] I used to wonder how places with free/cheap healthcare, good social programs, good laws and more seem to “not appreciate what they have” and not learn from us in regards to avoid being shitty, but maybe I’m not seeing something here (besides maybe housing in the world right now).

[User] I know I’m trailing off of the mental well being of youngsters (something said kids can’t often control compared to grown voting adults), but it makes me wonder: What’s up in Quebec/Canada to cause this? Shootings are rare, the culture’s fairly different, Quebec’s got decent social programs…

[Assistant]
Fuck, it’s like nothing’s enough anymore in this day and age.

I would rage at the adults in the world for not learning from us Americans on what NOT to do (and to safeguard their privileges), but shit, I gotta be missing some big shit here.

[User] Sorry, it just seems odd to go from the 2017-2020 era of “See, Canada/Western Europe/Australia/New Zealand knows how to do shit” to “Fuck, why would you vote for THAT???” and then screw both themselves and their youngsters over.

[Assistant]
But yeah, it’s just unfortunate, and to me, while seemingly unrelated, I’ve always thought the mental/physical well being of the young is a good indicator of how their own society and system is doing.

I know mental health is more complicated than just material wealth, but jeez!


[User] How early Is too early to start drankin? I’ve been up since 4am so it feels right…

[Assistant] 5 o’clock somewhere 🥂

[User] My many years have taught if you gotta ask wait 16-30 min then start. Cause then, you waited.

[Assistant] I already poured my wine but I’ll keep this in mind next time😂


[User]
Bayern were good last night. They also showed signs of Vincent Kompany’s coaching influence and were immeasurably improved from the defeat to Barcelona.

Article, for @theathleticfc.bsky.social.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/595...

[Assistant] Bayern have been playing well, considering their current manager was at Burnley, who is currently in the championship.

[User] I really dont understand the whole "was at Burnley"-argument, like Ancelotti came from a 10/14th place Everton to win several big titles with Madrid. Like it matters where you come from.

[Assistant]
Ancelotti had extensive track record before Everton. So probably not the best comparison.

But otherwise I agree with you. Alonso came from Sociedad B. Guardiola - from Barcelona B. Different coaches are successful in different settings, and coaches with limited track record r not necessarily bad.

[User] It's always about the club in which the coach is allowed to train. Imagine Pep at Burnley, would he be winning the Premier League? Most likely not, therefore you must always take into account the context -as you said- and the environment they are allowed to act in.

[Assistant] +Ancelottis track record is great, I get that, but he was solely talking about where that coach came from and his time at Everton wasn't so successful, if we are real.

[User] I thought Psg deserved an equaliser by the end.

[Assistant]
Seb as always an awesome read.  Had the match in the background soon after PSG went down to ten men, plus the city implosion was starting

Be interested in your thoughts about a second yellow needing a "higher bar" as posited by one of the commentators.


[User] Lots of incoherent things in this embarrassing article. But the idea that a literal freaking Kennedy in the administration of a billionaire is “anti-elite” shows that conservatives have evacuated all meaning from the word elite. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/o...

[Assistant] Yes. I started noticing them working quite hard to change the meaning of the woes, starting after '12. It worked.

[User]
I think that the right has deliberately cast liberals as elites for so long....

... that now elite seems to mean liberal to the right.

(of course, it's all nonsense. But the Bushes were able to do this also).

[Assistant]
In the US, the right (vs left) has gone more in the populist direction.

That inevitably means casting "elites" as the enemy of the people (even if you yourself are an elite by any reasonable standard).

So you label those you oppose as elites, mix, and stir.


[User]
For years I have lived in a mixed household. I use an Android phone. My wife uses an iPhone.

Today, she upgraded her phone so now it supports RCS messaging. This might be the best thing to happen to us in years.

[Assistant] What is RCS?

[User]
It is a messaging protocol that replaces SMS. It supports many of the features of iMessage but it is not proprietary.

For years if I sent a video to her, for example, it would not work very well because it was using the ancient MMS protocol.

Apple fought it for years.

www.cnet.com/tech/service...

[Assistant] Thanks. I travel with a close friend who has an Android phone. Maybe this will help us share material. All of my close family members use iOS phones. I’m going to read up on this!


[User] Wh... What if we fisted with the Tingle all the way festive lube?

[Assistant] I…wow…also why did my mind immediately go to it smelled like a Christmas tree because it was green??

[User] is it sparkly?

[Assistant] Tingle… all *that* way..?


[User] 2 or 7 today…with the possibility (probability) of 3 this evening.

[Assistant] 1, 5 and 9 for me! 👍

[User] 5 is life goals 🙌

[Assistant] I'm a 2...yeah, a solid 2. Don't like to admit that I would ever be a 3, but...it could happen.


[User]
finished, my latest painting…

‘leaf blower’
(oils on canvass, 60” x 40”)

can only be contemplated after listening to this sound track on full volume…
youtu.be/ke41QysEhuQ?...
#artist #painting #art
👍😎

[Assistant] Love it but isn't that a rake?

[User] Thank you, yes, but you didn’t listen to the complete 3 1/2 hrs sound did you?!

[Assistant] Thank you, yes, but, tut tut, you didn’t listen to the full 3 1/2 hours of leaf blower sound did you?!


[User] I realised I haven't written or posted a fic at all this month and was about to feel bad when I realised that not writing this month has actually helped me so much with my mental health. (1/4)

[Assistant] I've been able to focus on my first assignment for my new course and have spent quality time with family this past month. I've also just talked to people in the fandom for the first time in ages and I forgot how much I missed it. (2/4)

[User] I used to feel bad if I hadn't created or posted anything in ages because I felt like I was letting myself down, but just being able to talk with people and bond and reminisce has really helped me get closer to who I was when I first joined the fandom. (3/4)

[Assistant] And, it's shown me that it's okay to set boundaries for myself around how much I create fandom wise and that it's okay to take a break from creating all together. (4/4)

[User] (I am in a soppy mood today please just ignore me 😅)

[Assistant] It isn't easy to find a balance, I think. The line between doing something to a degree where it has a positive impact but doesn't become an overwhelming demand can be thin sometimes.


[Assistant] I jumped on an early train recently (maybe a 6:30am?) and figured I would walk in and find a seat easily because who would be on the train at that hour? It was packed! But then at the next stop everyone exited for this project.

[User]
People likely coming or going to work. 41,000 locals per day do that in Monaco. Thankfully as of about the middle of next month there will be more trains in the whole region.

Hoping to get some listings in the new development. 😉

[Assistant] It's interesting to see the photos because from afar, I thought it was a lot larger than it is. Maybe next month I will try to do a walk along the seawall there. Good luck with your listings!


[User]
Mug check.

It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so upgrade that from “May contain alcohol” to “definitely contains alcohol”

[Assistant] Coffe is black, I am a grump, all checks out.

[User] Do you have a matching t-shirt?

[Assistant] No, but now I’m going to see if they make one!

[User] I bought my coffee this morning but I got a cookie butter latte!

[Assistant]
You have my permission. It’s a 35-day tailgate.

Happy holidays 🎅🏻


[User] Hey @bitmapbooks.com thete will be no chance in hell we ever gonna get that Sega back again isn't there? :(

[Assistant] Apologies, not at the moment.

[User] No problem, still enaugh books to enjoy. That jrpg book is one of my best buys ever.

[Assistant] Thank you, much appreciated 👍


[User] @w2aps.bsky.social how do you feel about the new wasps stadium in Swanley??

[Assistant] I like it in principle. Still a long way off and much can change. The proposed huge housing development will need supporting facilities so it seems broadly logical too.

[User] If they get the go ahead I'll be getting a season ticket.

[Assistant] It's the same journey time from Adams Park as the Ricoh/CBS is, so no worse a journey for me, once the A3 junction 10 works etc are finished. I imagine I'll be there every match, and some away ones, in some capacity. 🐝


[User] Do the kids not go out and get blackout drunk the night before Thanksgiving anymore? Because given the state of everything, maybe we should bring that back.

[Assistant] For grownups too.

[User] Yeah I definitely meant for me 😂😂

[Assistant] Honestly, with everything going on, a little nostalgia-fueled chaos might not be the worst idea. 😂

[User] I did that to avoid being in the kitchen with all the bossy women folk in my family. 😅

[Assistant] Because I'm pretty sure the hangover + construction noise next door would kill me even if I didn't wear my hearing aids?


[User] I actually have a Masters in Political Science. I learned a second language first, then read my degree in another country. I now use my skillset in the technical aspects of cybersecurity, using 2 of the languages I learned in my thirties.

[Assistant] My God, with that galactic sized brain of yours, you should be sending rockets to space, own an EV company, and the world's largest social media sire, surely?

[User] Brilliant, in your face Muppet Man. 😂

[Assistant] He’s baffled why you’d waste that intellect and not use it to bully people & troll foreign governments. You’re weird man..


[User] Me, when I get the existential dread from realising I'm in a dead end job.

[Assistant] Having one of those days, lads. It'll pass.

[User] Bring on retirement?

[Assistant] Yes please.


[User]
Or you could treat it like a police interview and just shut the fuck up. This has worked for generations, a time honored tradition.

And when your weird uncle "goes for a walk" join him, his pot isn't great but the exercise will help your mood.

[Assistant] Really fun to watch the post dinner dog walk tradition changing of the guard from me and my brother in law to our kids.

[User] Everyone timing their smoke breaks for maximum deniability. Then play some Yahtzee with Grandma so she doesn't feel left out.

[Assistant] Taking out the recycling one can at a time.


[User]
Most people don't know, but I have an alter ego twitter account called @Eavesdroppings_ where I document the mutterings of folks who pass under my open bedroom window at night...

Thread.

[Assistant] Now, I haven't put up any eavesdroppings for ages - mainly because for a very long time there weren't any and then they were just lots of unfunny drunks, who really should have been at home....

[User]
But there's a really interesting thing happening recently that also happened in March + November last year.....

...the amount of people coughing and sneezing as they trot past my window has accelerated hugely!!

[Assistant] I reckon I have my own eavesdropping version of the Zoe app.... 😂😂


[User] Remembering when Motorola made an Android phone that had a dock that was meant to be desktop replacement...That seems more and more possible with each generation of smartphone with how powerful they are getting. But I guess no one wants to try and make the OS work for that.

[Assistant] It also seems like Apple kind of dropped their whole marketing the iPad as a computer? But now they are using the same processors in those as in their laptops, so the line between "mobile device" and computer are even more blurred, but it's still the OS as a wall.

[User] I guess Samsung has a think that lets you use their phones in a "desktop mode."

[Assistant]
I have a Galaxy Tab A that works as a decent ultra-portable "desktop" with a connected bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but it can't do things like windowed apps.

I recall Asus doing similar with their "Transformer" tablets that offered a detachable laptop-style keyboard base.


[User] Here is your daily reminder to any ao3 users that "dead dove: do not eat" does NOT mean something inherently contains something disturbing or gross and wasn't meant to be used that way!  It just means "you've been warned so don't complain if you read it."  There is a Difference.

[Assistant] "Writing dead dove" "this contains dead dove" That Means Nothing.  Literally.  Dead dove is literally meant to go along with proper warnings as a kind of gag like "you should know what you're getting into" regardless of what the content itself is.

[User] It HAS evolved into a catchall phrase on social media, though. It's a lot easier for people who write or draw messy or graphically triggering subjects to just say they write dead dove in their (character limited) bios and let people who want nothing to do with any of it steer clear.

[Assistant] TOTALLY FAIR.  idk it just bothers me when it's used in lieu of like.  Proper warnings for exact things?

[User] Yeah but it's hard to warn for everything possible in your twitter bio, for example. So I get why it's used that way. Generally speaking it's a warning for people who are like. Proship DNI? Dead Dove is your "steer clear!"

[Assistant] Fair!  I was just talking about ao3, where you've got plenty of room to warn for various things.


[User] the Wider Social Determinants of Menswear:

[Assistant] Love this! Post doc idea maybe?

[User] I'd have A LOT to learn 😆

[Assistant] I couldn’t possibly comment 😆


[User] There needs to be more research on the expanding power needs of data centres and the direct impact on consumer energy bills. There is an inevitable cost to upgrade the grid due to rising energy demand and that cost is highly likely to be passed on to consumers. Here’s why:

[Assistant] Expanding grid capacity to handle more highways requires large investments in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. Energy firms recover these costs through rate adjustments…

[User] Many countries have regulatory systems that allow utilities to recoup costs for infrastructure projects deemed necessary to ensure reliable supply, typically through higher prices…

[Assistant] As data centres consume more energy, peak demand periods may require additional capacity. To incentivise efficient usage or cover higher costs, energy providers can increase rates for all consumers…

[User] In many countries, grid upgrades are viewed as shared benefits, meaning even consumers who don’t directly use energy-intensive services like data centres will see a portion of their costs on bills…

[Assistant] At the same time, efforts to transition to renewable energy sources may compound the investment burden, further driving up rates…


[User]
The banana taped to a wall sold for $6.2 million. The artist & the man who bought it are delighted.

The man who sold the banana from his street cart is an immigrant living in a basement apartment with five other men in the Bronx, working 12 hour shifts for $12/hour.

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/n...

[Assistant] That's obscene.

[User] We are an absurd bunch!

[Assistant] Things like this are why there really needs to be a wealth tax (or at least a “that’s insane” tax).


[User] Should I buy tealights and matches for the Supernatural Beings event tonight, or is that tempting disaster in a room full of poets and wine?

[Assistant] You might all die, but the story will live forever. And isn't that what poetry is all about?

[User] That or something like it!

[Assistant] They are not really there of course.They are merely figments of your words,printed in 3D 🤔