Skip Navigation

User banner

Ecco the dolphin

@ echolalia @lemmy.ml

Posts
0
Comments
213
Joined
2 yr. ago

I am a time-traveling dolphin. An entity made of giant balls gave me the ability to breathe underwater, but this ability was recently stolen from me by aliens.

Sometimes I turn into a bird.

  • Sorry, I thought this was in another thread that was actually talking about IQ. I've clicked through too many articles.

    This article doesn't mention IQ at all, even though your response does. IQ isn't an absolute quantitative measure for intelligence even though many people conflate them - this is probably why the article doesn't mention it.

    I'd dig into the Financial Times article that this Neoscope article is about but it's pay-walled. The neoscope article makes some case for intelligence declining (I don't have time to read those citations right now), but I'd point out this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with less intelligent parents having children. It could be evidence that the material conditions for us ordinary citizens is declining as a whole (I think we would both agree on that point). Cost of living is up, people are working longer. Long COVID probably has something to do with it, and stress.

  • Im not going to write some big long podt, just two things:

    1. people, on average, are not getting dumber. Anything you noticed observationally about dumb people having more children does not seem to have any effect on the world. Human nutrition has improved vastly over the past 100 years, as has education, etc.
    2. IQ increases every year. I don't think this is evidence people are getting smarter because I think IQ is a poor measure of intelligence. I'm pointing this out to you because your statement about "IQ drifting toward the bottom'" is factually untrue.
  • the kneejerk reaction that the statement always gets is annoying.

    I agree with everything you said, but I'm going to point out something. If there is a common kneejerk reaction to some particular topic, there's probably a reason for that. You yourself said its annoying? I suppose its predictable then. If you can predict that people are going to react in some way, you can write with more explanation to clarify that you aren't actually supporting something like eugenics. The poster I'm responding to did not do this.

    I took this lack of explanation as support (which, on reflection, might be leaping to conclusions). The overall tone of the comment is rather judgemental.

    The commenter is also wrong; IQ hasn't been "drifting towards the bottom", the average IQ increases every year. Its why they have to constantly adjust the tests, because 100 is meant to be an average score by design. This is primarily why I chose to respond to him. He's not saying " which is why we should invest in family planning" or "we should invest in children's education", he's making an untrue statement, and then pretending that this will cause some sort of feedback loop. Dumb people making more dumb people.

    IQ is not some absolute quantitative metric of intelligence. The people who treat it like it is... I find that a lot of them are pushing some sort of angle or simply don't understand it.

  • This is the plot to a fictional movie. Intelligence is a factor of many things, and most of those factors are not genetic.

    Your observation seems close to the opinions of old school eugenicists. "The wrong people are having children".

  • I agree, we shouldn't be coddling folk triggered by messages like "Everyone is Welcome". They need to toughen up and learn to accept messages of inclusivity.

    They SHOULD feel uncomfortable if they don't like this sign. It'll put hair on their chest.

  • But he also said he wanted cuts, and that Musk would remain a power center: “If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”

    Its not time for celebration. This is just to take heat off Elon. Now the media will be able to spread the blame around or excuse it. "People inside the department know how best to make cuts. Everything is normal".

  • For what it's worth, they have their domain back. It seems from a skim from the front page they're just deciding how to refederate (allow list or block list, basically they are trying to decide if they will automatically federate with new instances).

    At the time of writing this comment the votes are close and allow list is winning (many commenters don't want to federate with new instances unless they are approved).

  • I think that you should keep posting with your signature if it makes you happy. I have some sincere doubts it will force a corporation to exclude your content from any aggregated data, though, nor do I think anyone is giving up their rights by not properly licensing their comments here. Copyright is automatic in the USA. The problem isn't the licensing, its the fact that no court is properly enforcing these rights. And, too few governments have data privacy laws on the books.

    I'm not interested in relitigating those points though, I'm sure you've heard them. I guess I'm just typing that up so you know where I'm coming from.

    I do think your signature is valuable when it makes people consider who owns their data, and why the CC license is important.

    Personally I think you should put an explanation in your bio. I think your message will be served better if you can point to a pre-written explanation (or even an old style FAQ). But, I don't think you're obligated to do so. Its all gravy. People are going to fight you regardless.

    Did you see that post from that guy mad about a period character on slashdot? Lmao

  • Hm, interesting. So this guy was posting all weird on slashdot, and you remember decades later? And you carried that with you, and it inspired you to type this comment. That's a lot of commitment on your part for a stray period.

    That's pretty funny. Thank you for sharing.

  • I miss the old web, where if someone wanted to RP as a alien or a cat or something in all their forum posts, we just kind of rolled with it. The internet was strange and diverse.

    So many people are dog piling this guy because, in essence, he isn't conforming. He's including a little forum signature on his lemmy posts in 2025.

    Just ignore it and keep scrolling.

    I agree, but not in a "this guy is an idiot" kind of way, but in a "do whatever you want and keep the internet diverse and strange" kind of way. Let the guy have his small protest. Folks need to stop dog piling him. It shows up in many of the threads he's in, and judgments about his little signature dominate over anything he actually had to say.

  • oωo

    Jump
  • Its standard practice for math equations involving spectral densities and Fourier transforms to use the testicles character for the independent variable.

    Fourier analysis involves measuring the sampled strength of the signal at different points in time. Its also related to ARIMA models. Essentially, you're inspecting how cyclical some data is, and the testies are points in time.

    By the way, there is an error in this meme, see the comment left by jjagaimo

  • R

    We can reject the null hypothesis that you are not a nerd at significance $\alpha < 0.001$.

    oh wait, shit let me run that again, my data frame is full of NA somehow, again.

  • Not just that, I like how they went with "radical change" instead of "wanton destruction" or "unlawful government restructuring".

  • NOAA will be dismantled first (or they will be forced to massage these numbers somehow)

    Toss a coin to ur witcher climate scientist employed in the public sector providing publically available datasets

  • These salary numbers are SO OLD. GS5 is like, 40k minimum?

    The GS payscale is public data. GS is adjusted every year and each position is adjusted for the cost of living for the area. Each GS rank has "steps" which, most people start at step 1 and get raises based on yearly reviews

    Here is the public listing for 2024: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2024/general-schedule

    (Efit: this still isn't much money to become a traitor to your fellow man)

  • I'm writing this reply not as a correction, but as advice from a native english speaker. The word "transvestite" has fallen out of use due to connotations (bigotry). I would use cross-dressing here, instead of transvestite. It's a word that USA-english speakers mostly avoiding using because there are less ambiguous ones (use transwoman/transman for trans people, use cross-dressing for cis people preforming a role/fetish).

    Your choice of word was not incorrect, it has just fallen out of fashion.

  • When a federal worker takes this buyout, the 8 months pay still comes out of the budget of whatever office/department they were employed by. So many of our federal institutions are already cash strapped right now due to funding cuts and straight up DOGE sabotage.

    When these workers take the buyout, those facilities lose a worker and spend money for nothing out of their appropriated budgets.

    I'd bet most of these people that have taken the buyout already earned their pentions. This isn't "saving" as much money as you think, it's just meant to break shit and its working.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump