astronaut_sloth @ astronaut_sloth @mander.xyz

Posts

13

Comments

250

Joined

2 yr. ago

I'm right there with you. I actually preferred the time constraint of an in-class essay over a take-home essay. I think it also helped me think on my feet better and form a cogent argument off the cuff. When I took essays home, I would agonize over every word and re-write sentences a hundred times.

My unpopular opinion is that I have always preferred essay tests to multiple choice or true-false (especially true-false).

I mean, obviously the answer is yes. But that is a great hook into what's next.

This article also does a good job of making an argument for the Democrats to tack left and have a strong contrasting message to the Republicans. Even the squishiest, least offensive MAGA is still pretty far right and closer to Trump than to any Democrat. They don't even regret their votes in any appreciable way. The most regret is coming from people who stayed home or voted third party. Give them a real contrast so even the most intellectually dishonest grifter can't say "both sides" anymore.

If the Democrats had a real message and some fight in them, they could be an opposition party. Instead, most just want to write strongly worded letters without doing the hard work. And with that, they might actually win elections. Too bad they're only starting to figure this out now when it's probably too late.

Even beyond that, you'd think that at some point someone would realize that if you have to tell someone you aren't a monster even though you're acting monstrously, you're a monster, regardless of whose orders you're following.

It's also not all-or-none. Someone who otherwise is really interested in learning the material may just skate through using AI in a class that is uninteresting to them but required. Or someone might have life come up with a particularly strict instructor who doesn't accept late work, and using AI is just a means to not fall behind.

The ones who are running everything through an LLM are stupid and ultimately shooting themselves in the foot. The others may just be taking a shortcut through some busy work or ensuring a life event doesn't tank their grade.

Not gonna lie, I don't really blame the AI.

Sounds like yet another high crime and misdemeanor. Why doesn't the co-equal branch established in Article I do it's duty? And failing that, why doesn't Hegseth, who has "We the People" tattooed on his drunken forearm, have the courage that he demands of others to tell off his boss? Where are the Oath Keepers who say they are so opposed to a tyrannical government and take their oaths to the Constitution seriously?

They wipe their collective asses with the Constitution. For that, everyone in this administration, and those who enabled it should burn as the traitors that they are.

Again, fighting isn't for everyone. We fight so others can get away and maybe have the hope to see their home again. But in fighting, we realize that there's a VERY good chance that it leads to death. Not everyone is prepared for that, and not everyone's family can afford that. It's risk calculus, and it's different for everyone.

Not to mention, as the article said, there are some cases where getting out and speaking freely is more helpful. One extra person on the street won't make a difference, but a well-respected academic may be able to work to sway another country or international organization to intervene, and that is worth it.

Don't be an asshole. Staying or going is an intensely personal decision. "Fighting back" can cost a lot, up to one's life. If someone isn't ready for that--and that is understandable--then they shouldn't be coerced. There is no shame in packing up and leaving.

If you're staying, then part of fighting back is encouraging and helping those who are unwilling or unable to find the exit because if we are being very honest, the chance of coming out of "fighting back" alive is not very high, especially if you're a vulnerable minority.

And yes, I'm staying.

then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

I don't know why, but this made me really sad. Remember when we, the "New World, with all its power and might" fought for "rescue and liberation"? Really makes you want to stand up and fight for who we were and can still be again.

They’re prepping the next Cornel West

Maybe, but at least Cornel West is a legitimate intellectual who has actual political opinions, fringe as they may be. This dude is just some TV personality.

I hate that this is even a story. Are we as Americans so stupid that the only people who can win the "undecided" or "centrist" vote (read uninformed stupid people) are just TV personalities?

Correct. For criminal acts. As Mitt Romney said, "Corporations are people, my friend." (Yes, I know corporate personhood makes no sense, but this is the messed up world we live in.)

Can't pardon a lawsuit. Lawsuits are civil; pardons are for criminal cases. Those staffers could be bankrupted, which would be hilarious.

Honestly, of all the things he's doing, not releasing the results of his physical are the least worrisome. Anyone with eyes and a brain can see he's not healthy.

I see both points. You're totally right that for a company, it's just the result that matters. However, to Bradley's, since he's specifically talking about art direction, the journey is important in so much as getting a passable result. I've only dabbled with 2D and 3D art, but converting to 3D requires an understanding of the geometries of things and how they look from different angles. Some things look cool from one angle and really bad from another. Doing the real work allows you to figure that out and abandon a design before too much work is put in or modify it so it works better.

When it comes to software, though, I'm kinda on the fence. I like to use AI for small bits of code and knocking out boilerplate so that I can focus on making the "real" part of the code good. I hope the real, creative, and hard parts of a project aren't being LLM'd away, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's a mandate from some MBA.

As far as I can tell, it boils down to some combination of three reasons: they're bigots; they're stupid; or they're selfish. Bigotry is self-explanatory. If they actually believed that he would do good things and help the country, then they're clearly stupid. If they didn't care how his actions hurt others but thought they'd help them financially, then they're selfish. Now, if they're selfish and not wealthy (wealthy being not like two houses and a couple millions in savings but rather own a couple yachts and an island) then they're also stupid on top of being selfish.

The United States has a good deal of cultural rot. As a culture, we're sick and have been for decades (and that's not even getting into the nation's original sin of slavery/racism). Carter rightly pointed it out in his "malaise speech." A large number of Americans are simply incapable of thinking about others outside themselves. We are incapable of taking on large projects for the collective good. And because of that, we defunded education for decades leading to the stupid, selfish population of today.

Zog yes? Zog no?

Bester is by far one of the best characters in sci-fi, and some of Walter Koenig's best work.

Yeah, it's not technically impossible to stop web scrapers, but it's difficult to have a lasting, effective solution. One easy way is to block their user-agent assuming the scraper uses an identifiable user-agent, but that can be easily circumvented. The also easy and somewhat more effective way is to block scrapers' and caching services' IP addresses, but that turns into a game of whack-a-mole. You could also have a paywall or login to view content and not approve a certain org, but that only will work for certain use cases, and that also is easy to circumvent. If stopping a single org's scraping is the hill to die on, good luck.

That said, I'm all for fighting ICE, even if it's futile. Just slowing them down and frustrating them is useful.