monopoledance

há 4 anosdiscuss

Destabilizing “the west” and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. Look at the pandemic… Soon there will be toil about defensive measurements and expenses. The economy wont like a chronic war threat either. Putin just has to move Russia’s troops every now and then.

monopoledance

há 4 anosdiscuss

Unsatisfied niche btw.. There is effectively no dating app for kinksters, but a lot of people are into kink.

monopoledance

há 4 anosdiscuss

Idk. No one I knew was an outspoken racist in school. Especially these days, teenagers seem to be very aware of these issues. Regardless, it’s not the only thing pointed out here. With the original comment it paints a different story than outcry for the sake of outcry.

monopoledance

há 4 anosdiscuss

This article rubs me the wrong way. The headline isn’t well supported by its content, as the article drifts off to cheery picking counter arguments debunking lab-origin conspiracy theories. And a whole lot of questionable references to other idiotic conspiracy narratives.

Considering the natural origin hypothesis hasn’t been proven yet, mixing up skeptics with conspi nuts feels disingenuous, rhetorically targeting emotions and identity. I don’t think there is a huge overlap with those considering gain of function research as possible origin, with your typical death-by-5G, antivax flatearther, or climate denialist. Downright dismissing a lab origin, when really both ways are completely possible, feels patronizing and not scientific at all. I also don’t think someone who thinks about the FCS is likely to shoot a researcher on their way home. Or listens to Trumps bullshit, for that matter.

Not everyone thinks SARS2 is a bio weapon designed by Bill Gates. To me however, the mere possibility of a lab origin influences my opinion on gain of function research and legislation, and that should be the real discourse here IMO. Attributing this to China really is beside the point and realistically “impossible knowledge“ considering the extent of a possible liability issue at hand, anyway. The xenophobic attacks started right from the start, when Trump rallied against “the China virus” instead of taking action against its spread. No one, but Biontech and virologists were concerned about the genome of the virus back then.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

"Single-use" may have been the wrong expression. I meant, I needed something that could break, be stolen, or tempered with at the airport, without me losing trust/access to my main work/digital life tool, and without me getting too sad about it.

I try the Macbooks' keyboards every time I see one in the store. Yes, it has been even worse, but the new ones feel clickity-clackity, like an ATM pad, to me too. No travel, and annoying high pitched noises. Feels weird to rest your fingers on those keys. Not even close to a Thinkpad keyboard, old or new. I could get used to it, but it is not a great input device. Not at all. Trackpad rocks of course, but so does the nipple, if you type a lot.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Standing desk doesn't help with the viewing angle and neck strain. Your upper body should be exactly the same as sitting well adjusted.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Keyboard is unmatched indeed, but my nipple mechanic is worn now and the trackpad is atrocious. I am not defending this machine, it is 10 years old, the CPU is a major limitation now. I bought it refurbished for 240€ in 2015, so I had a "single use" laptop for a trip... Became my main machine for years to follow. The low price point is one of the best features, as I am not constantly worried about it. Also the original spill resistance saved my ass two times. Oh yeah and SSD and RAM upgrade took me literally 5 minutes. Ridiculous. Almost disappointing as a DIY project.

Tho, I suspect it will perform much, much better cleaned, repaired and thermal-paste reapplied. But I wont open it, as long as I have no alternative set up.

(Also M1 + Linux, would be a no-brainer for me - best bang for the buck right now. I just fucking hate Apple OSs and the ecosystem. Oh and the keyboard too - feels as pleasant an ATM's number pad... Following Asahi closely, still.)

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Jeez, I explicitly stated my comment was about "snappiness" only. Sure you can move the goalpost, if it makes you happy, but I am not trying to argue a 10 year old Thinkpad, or any laptop that age, is nicer than a recent Macbook. You win, tiger.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Lol. That's what I thought as well, but I couldn't really spell it. The reference fits perfectly.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Maybe. At least I can not switch off easily and those stories stay with me. I also don't like horror movies. Maybe it's more pleasant, or enjoyable, when you feel differently, or "less".

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

But would you agree, you don't need that story over and over dressed up differently? Some people have read/seen more than one of those stories.

Man's search for arbitrary meaning (through suffering and such).

I think that's feeding the delusion that life is somehow fair, or balanced, or something, when really life is just cruel sometimes. Maybe that's the appeal. I just cope with it differently, try to laugh it off.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

> You can't escape sadness. Life is fundamentally about suffering.

Yeah, no shit. That's why I try to not invite it unnecessarily.

> I think people seek these stories because it helps them deal with their own sadness.

I doubt that. I think it's some form of morbid entertainment I don't need, as indicated by other commenters. Emotionality porn or something. Today the sad cancer story, tomorrow FetLife. (Just kidding; no kink-shaming intended.)

I assume most people will continue their life as if they are not going to die ultimately, afterwards. Or at least I am pretty sure there are plenty of people dying of stress-related disease, which at some point in their life read a sad story about death.

Also the abstract sadness, which comes with these stories is very different to what you experience when really sick and worried - when you disassociate (good) and take life by the day.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

That's terrible ergonomics and you will grow a hunch. One day you will notice in the mirror and your consequent attempts to straighten your neck will fail. Laptops are such a legacy format, we only endure because we're denied power-/useful tablets, which would be much more flexible ergonomics-wise.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

I have a ten year old X220 with an SSD upgrade.... I don't have to wait for anything really, either. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a difference, but... is it a 2000$ difference?

This is about snappiness only, I have no trouble finding workloads stressing this old i5 (e.g. 2k/4k videos), where an M1 would fly through. Personally, I just think snappiness alone is a bit forced argument to spent 2k$.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Gnome's accessibility feature "larger text" works a bit better than font scaling IMEx. With font scaling often some alignment and spacing seems odd. And you can toggle "larger text" with one click, if you make the accessibility menu permanent.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

For real.

Tho, if organ donations were opt-out, or even no choice, and the infrastructure to match demand and supply would scale (it does not at the moment), we wouldn't need artificial organs to give this poor man this "high risk investment" and a chance to fight for his life.

Well, maybe in this particular case, an autologus transplant would be much better indeed, as I imagine cancer patients generally don't fare well with suppressed autoimmunity... Then again, no Repo Men visits.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

I honestly don't understand why people seek that. Doesn't that sadness and devastation hang with you afterwards?

I gave it a try, but now I am trying to avoid these stories at all costs (thanks for the warning) and firmly believe everything important in life can be told with humor, as well.

1 in 5 people dies of cancer, and usually it sucks, no happy ending. I really, really don't see the need to bring more tragic death into your life than what's likely coming your way, anyway.

Do you "enjoy" the sadness and crying? (Honest question.)

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

I think that depth has been more widely recognized in neuro-biology before, but has fallen from grace in favor of a naive mechanistic enthusiasm at the beginning of that early neuroimagining euphoria.

You may look into constructivism, especially the biological foundation (e.g. the work of Maturana and Valera). It offers the (somewhat forgotten) hard science link to modern philosophy and psychology, like post-structualism/-modernism and systems theory.

As far as I know, it's not very popular, because it presents a little crisis and is "not very fun"... or at least that's what the criticism comes down to IMO. (I suspect, it's kinda similar to Gödel's assault, but much easier to dismiss.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(philosophy_of_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_constructivism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humberto_Maturana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

True or not, great read and interesting idea.

The concept of “flattening an energy landscape” resonates a lot with me. I feel like the filter on which internal and external impressions make it into the consciousness varies in people, like an island's extend depending on sea levels. I always thought of it as a uniform, plane threshold, so the idea of a "rule based" filter of priors is inspiring to me. However, the article extends this to other things than just the "event horizon" of the unconsciousness, while my intuitive understanding relates more to the experience, but not quality, of cognition.

When I close my eyes, I can usually "see my brain thinking/sorting/searching" (closed eye hallucinations), a visual soup of (random) associations, patterns and transformations, and experience visual snow in dim light, most of the time. Although I got used to it, I do suffer from that "meta experience", when gravely exhausted and stressed - makes reality a bit unreal at times. According to wikipedia, closed eye hallucinations occur to most people only when tripping, so, assuming I am not psychotic, I guess the threshold/prior-filtering varies.

I had this as long as I can remember, but I fear smoking weed in my youth didn't help (HPPD). Not sure, if I should experiment with psychedelics... I see a possible benefit and great danger, too.

monopoledance

há 5 anosdiscuss

Possibly a heavy selection bias, don't you think?

Shrooms are illegal almost everywhere, or at least not very popular. I assume there is a very significant filter on which type of personalities seek these experiences (unlike e.g. trying alcohol or cannabis, as those are accessible and culturally integrated everywhere).

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