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Andy

@ andrewrgross @slrpnk.net

Posts
90
Comments
776
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Miss me with that doomer shit

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  • Thanks for sharing this. I wasn't familiar with this channel, not I'm liking it.

    I just read that this guy was part of Nebula and was forced out. It's remarkable that he's forced out for speaking openly and defending his beliefs when Isaac Arthur is tolerated despite having much more onerous politics but having them in secret. Smh.

  • Schools are ripping up playgrounds across the US | Projects to plant trees, build shade structures & reduce amount of pavement around schools become priority as schoolyards become dangerously hot

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  • My kids school has done some of this. Next to his kindergarten class is a little patio where they eat snacks and spend a lot of the day. It used to be concrete, but now it's all wood chips and little logs for stools. The shade is lacking, but it has trees, they're just a bit young. When they fill out, it'll be amazing.

  • Mastermind

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  • Amen. It drives me fuckin' nuts anytime -- in business as well as in sci-fi and general discussion -- when people envision a society made perfect because it's run by a genius computer.

    For pretty much every challenge society faces, the major obstacle is not that we're unsure what to do or lack the intelligence to solve. We already have all the solutions, it's just that our decision making systems are completely disinterested in employing any of the solutions that we already have.

    It's like, if you could get everyone to agree to listen to a computer, why not just skip the computer and get everyone to agree to listen to a combination of popular will and expert advice? Popular will and expert advice are like the supercomputer that runs society that we already have.

  • Miss me with that doomer shit

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  • “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

    ― Ursula K. Le Guin

  • Miss me with that doomer shit

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  • You are utterly powerless to stop this, even at your most self actualized, mobile, and focused you are fundamentally incapable of changing what needs to be changed.

    This is flat out wrong.

    You're missing the point, because your scale is off. I'm not trying to change the planet. I'm trying to change my city and neighborhood. I'm not trying to hold back the tides. I'm trying to teach the next generation the resiliency to survive a long road to something better.

    Those goals are totally in my reach. I can't save billions, but I can definitely save dozens. Perhaps hundreds over the next century. And if enough of us do that, collectively we CAN save billions.

  • Miss me with that doomer shit

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  • And somewhat ironically, the “our species can still turn it around! live in hope!” types are the same ones deadset against revolution to force those living large off destroying the planet to stop in a physical way.

    I feel like it's the other way around. I feel like it's my people who are out there getting arrested and making fossil fuel execs upgrade their security detail, and it's the doomers who seem to complain endlessly about how much they hate the taste of shoe leather while somehow spending the most time down there.

  • Map of 2000+ lemmy communities -- slrpnk.net is pretty diverse

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  • So do I understand correctly that this is a Principal Component Analysis of the amount of SLRPNK.net users who comment on other instances? This is very cool.

    Thanks for sharing this. I would also crosspost to the c/meta.

  • Miss me with that doomer shit

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  • Okay well then where's the problem? If there's no point in trying to fight climate change while capitalism exists, then end capitalism. I don't understand where we disagree.

  • Experiences With Mist Showers?

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  • I'd still be curious to know whether a mist is comfortable and how much water it consumes.

  • “I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why.”

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  • I just read Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and I can't believe it took me until now to read it.

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  • I just read Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and I can't believe it took me until now to read it.

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  • Definitely do! It's a fast read. I couldn't put it down (which is all the more remarkable because of how dark it is).

  • I just read Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and I can't believe it took me until now to read it.

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  • Fully Automated. It's a tabletop role playing game. I originally posted this to the Lemmy community for the game, but cross posted it because I wanted more people to talk to about the book.

  • Israel accused of killing its own civilians under the 'Hannibal Directive' to avoid them being taken hostage

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  • The only thing I don't understand about this article is what precipitated them to write it now, in September.

    As they mentioned, this all came out months ago. Haaretz -- which is basically the Israeli New York Times -- reported on this. Soldiers, survivors, and investigators have all testified that the IDF instructed soldiers to let no one return to Gaza, full stop, by any means necessary, and liquidated hostages in a widespread manner.

    It's terrible. I'm glad it's being talked about. But geez, why does it take months for something like this to suddenly get reported on?

  • UK's first 'teacherless' AI classroom set to open in London

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  • This article doesn't really answer most of my questions.

    What subjects does the AI cover? Do they do all their learning independently? Does AI compose the entire lesson plan? What is the software platform? Who developed it? Is this just an LLM or is there more to it? How are students assessed? How long has the school been around, and what is their reputation? What is the fundamental goal of their approach?

    Overall, this sounds quite dumb. Just incredibly and transparently stupid. Like, if they insisted that all learning would be done on the blockchain. I'm very open minded, but I don't understand what the student's experience will be. Maybe they'll learn in the same way one could learn by browsing Wikipedia for 7 hours a day. But will they enjoy it? Will it help them find career fulfillment, or build confidence or learn social skills? It just sounds so much like that Willie Wonka experience scam but applied to an expensive private school instead of a pop-up attraction.

  • Israeli soldiers fatally shot an American woman at a West Bank protest, witnesses say

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  • Even still. Most are like, 'Woman (allegedly American) no longer alive due to visiting West Bank, claim some'.

    Most headlines don't even say who killed her.

  • UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase

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  • I agree with all of that. It's tough to talk about because I really hate to give any impression of moral equivalence. I think the leaders on both sides are equivalent in their hearts, but in actions and outcomes there's simply no contest. Israel's killers are much, much, much more brutally effective. At least several hundred times so in numbers. Very possibly a thousand times so.

    When I speak of Hamas, it's largely for the purpose of trying to understand their behavior.

  • UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase

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  • I'm not terribly surprised, since whatever either side says is largely detached from what is really going on on the ground.

    For instance, Israel has stated that it allows the vaccinations to take place, but four days ago blew up one of the aid trucks organized by a group called Anera after it had already been authorized for transit.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/30/middleeast/israeli-strike-gaza-aid-convoy-intl-latam/index.html

    Now, the IDF claims that the truck was hijacked by armed militants. Anera said that the truck was not hijacked, it was staffed with local Palestinian delivery drivers who asked to drive at the last minute, but also admitted that they were not among the people that the IDF had pre-aproved.

    So we can see here that the IDF blows people up in a deconflicted setting. But I'll say something critics of Israel often won't: I can't guarantee that none of those drivers were actually part of Hamas. Would it surprise me if Hamas and the IDF agreed to peacefully allow vaccinations without interference and BOTH broke that agreement? No. Israel doesn't follow the rules of engagement, nor does Hamas. What either side says they agree to is not a reliable source of what is happening. Both say whatever they think sounds good and then their fighters do whatever the hell they like. Neither side is honest or in control of their fighters, so nothing anyone says really matters that much.

  • UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase

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  • This makes me so sad. It's clear that the only reason that they're doing it is because unlike starvation, unconstrained polio virus can transmit to soldiers.

    They'll allow limited aid to prevent kids from dying of this one particular thing. Not of dying of all the other horrible stuff. But just of this one special cause.

    Sick.

  • What should I do if I find a bag by the road that I'm concerned it's a dead body?

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  • I feel like this is a pretty crass joke to make.

    A good friend of mine found a body a few months ago. It's a pretty shitty experience. And it's actually a lot like what OP describes. A sense of foreboding and suspicion combined with a conviction that these thoughts are foolish. And an uncertainty whether to check or to alert someone or to just try to forget it.

    Op, I'd report it and ask them to please follow up with you and let you know. It's probably nothing, and you'll feel better once you know it was nothing, and that you did the responsible thing in having it dealt with.