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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • Jeff Tweedy is, I think, the greatest American lyricist of his generation. His stuff always hits. But for some reason, Wilco- She’s a Jar and it’s chorus, has always stuck with me.

    "Just climb aboard

    The tracks of a trains arm

    In my fragile family tree

    And watch me floating inches above

    The people under me"

    Another one from Jeff’s (I’ve seen him in concert 5 times already, I can call him Jeff) solo Album, Jeff Tweedy- I know what it’s like

    "When the lights are dim

    In my window I have a twin

    I’m always looking out

    And he’s always looking in

    I know what it’s like

    Starting over again"

    And then, finally, from one of the greatest flows in the rap game, MF DOOM- Figaro, and this weird ass lyric that has lived rent-free in my head since I heard it

    "Off pride tykes talk wide through scar meat

    Off sides like how Worf rides with Starfleet"




  • So, they made it a “suggestion” to not contaminate the environment, got rid of a bunch of security requirements (Who needs security at a plant powering our cities anyway??), AND are upping the amount of radiation exposure someone can have before they seek treatment.

    So, basically a bunch of evil shit. huh, whuda’thunk the same people that saw the increased incidence of new cancers with all the PFAS in our water and food, and decided to roll back regulations on it while introducing a brand-new PFAS laden pesticide for all our crops! Wonderful! We’ll all get cancer and die early deaths because of them!

    They’re making literally everything worse, murdering us in the street, arresting dissidents, covering up their crimes, and stealing billions while they do it.


  • It should, first and foremost, evoke emotion.

    It should have relatable characters, with good dialogue, that show growth.

    It should leave an imprint upon the viewer, such that it inspires reflection, learning, or growth itself.

    The protagonist doesn’t have to be a good person, but they have to be a kind person.

    The antagonist should be seen as relatable, even pitiful (think Gollum, not Sauron).

    Good musical score, coloring, lighting, sound, and direction are needed but Great acting is required.

    An editor that loves the story.


  • oh awesome, Palantir, the same company profiting off the genocide in Gaza

    CEO Alex Karp has been a vocal supporter of Israel. In November 2023, he stated, “I am proud that we are supporting Israel in every way we can.”

    After October 2023, Palantir has provided Israel with multiple AI-powered data analytics tools for military and intelligence purposes.

    In January 2024, Palantir held its board meeting in Israel and entered into a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defense to help Israel’s “war effort.”

    In October 2024, Norway’s largest asset manager, Storebrand, divested its Palantir shares, worth $24 million, due to concerns that Palantir’s work for Israel might implicate Storebrand in violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.





  • That’s what I’m doing right now! Company hired me for a position I was qualified for, had more than 5 years experience in the field. Got hired during COVID after my business went belly up (due to billionaire named hagan out of virginia breaking contracts and then suing me for the privilege of attempting to do business with their slimy asses), so I was desperate for work. Like, I was going to have to move back in with my parents unless I found a job and these guys offered me a position at literally the last moment, so I took whatever they offered, which was $60k/year.

    After working there for a couple years, really giving it my all, they decide to promote one of the manufacturing people into my old position (I’d be mentoring them), and found out that they started him at $65k/ year. He had zero experience in the new field, but was being paid more. I ended up getting my bosses to agree to a raise to just under $70k, but the damage was done. They showed me exactly how much they appreciate all my effort and experience. Since that day I’ve done the absolute bare minimum. I do not give a single shit about the company, it’s goals, it’s production, it’s clients, nothing.

    And guess what, I’m still getting good reviews and tiny regular raises, I just focus all my time on other things.


  • I was a line cook for a hilton hotel restaurant. It was easy, and I’d been there for about a year. They had a position open up, night shift supervisor. Basically the same hours I was already working, just have to do a bit of admin on the side. I was the only one working there that had a degree instead of an arrest record, was just looking for a bit of extra money, so I applied thinking I’d be a shoe-in.

    Well they wanted the night-shift supervisor to be able to spontaneously feed a hypothetical group bigwigs that would surely show up the second I was left in charge (This is not a nice hotel, btw, we never had big wigs.). So they brought in another candidate, and decided to have us do a cook-off with surprise ingredients. I was like, what? This is ridiculous, they wanted me to invent a new dish that wasn’t on the menu (I made $10/hr). I lost the cooking challenge (I made tuna melts lol), but the guy who won declined the position (real smart of him).

    So did they then offer it to the only internal candidate seeking the position? nope! just kept looking for someone else. Came into my next shift, and the waiters came back during a huge rush with like, 5-6 special off-menu orders they wanted me to accommodate (not related to allergies or anything). I got halfway through cooking the first one, and then just… crashed out. Said “nope! fuck this.” clocked out, left.

    They called me for the next few days trying to get me back. “But you promised you wouldn’t be upset if we didn’t give you the supervisor position!” yup, I did say that. I changed my mind. Fuck you and that hotel.

    Found a better paying job the next week.


  • but that’s the problem. Ai people are pushing it as a universal tool. The huge push we saw to have ai in everything is kind of proof of that.

    People taking the response from LLMs at face value is a problem

    So we can’t trust it, but in addition to that, we also can’t trust people on TV, or people writing articles for official sounding websites, or the white house, or pretty much anything anymore. and that’s the real problem. We’ve cultivated an environment where facts and realities are twisted to fit a narrative, and then demanded that we give equal air time and consideration to literal false information being peddled by hucksters. These LLMs probably wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t feed them the same derivative and nonsensical BS we consume on a daily basis. but at this point we’ve just introduced and are now relying on a flawed tool that’s basing it’s knowledge on flawed information and it just creates a positive feedback loop of bullshit. People are using ai to write BS articles that are then referenced by ai. It won’t ever get better, it will only get worse.


  • I don’t think using an inaccurate tool gives you extra insight into anything. If I asked you to measure the size of objects around your house, and gave you a tape measure that was not correctly metered, would that make you better at measuring things? We learn by asking questions and getting answers. If the answers given are wrong, then you haven’t learned anything. It, in fact, makes you dumber.

    People who rely on ai are dumber, because using the tool makes them dumber. QED?




  • I think Ai being used by teachers and administrators for the purpose of off-loading menial tasks is great. Teachers are often working like 90 hours a week just to meet all the requirements put upon them, and a lot of those tasks do not require much thought, just a lot of time.

    In that respect, yeah sure, go for it. But at this point it seems like they’re encouraging students to use these programs as a way to off-load critical thinking and learning, and that… well, that’s horrifyingly stupid.


  • When I was in medical school, the one thing that surprised me the most was how often a doctor will see a patient, get their history/work-up, and then step outside into the hallway to google symptoms. It was alarming.

    Of course, the doctor is far more aware of ailments, and his googling is more sophisticated than just typing in whatever the patient says (you have to know what info is important in the pt. history, because patients will include/leave out all sorts of info), but still. It was unnerving.

    I also saw a study way back when that said that hanging up a decision tree flow chart in Emergency rooms, and having nurses work through all the steps drastically improved patient care; additionally new programs can spot a cancerous mass on a radiograph/CT scan far before the human eye could discern it, and that’s great but… We still need educated and experienced doctors because a lot of stuff looks like other stuff, and sometimes the best way to tell them apart is through weird tricks like “smell the wound, does it smell fruity? then it’s this. Does it smell earthy? then it’s this.”


  • I gotta be honest. Whenever I find out that someone uses any of these LLMs, or Ai chatbots, hell even Alexa or Siri, my respect for them instantly plummets. What these things are doing to our minds, is akin to how your diet and cooking habits change once you start utilizing doordash extensively.

    I say this with full understanding that I’m coming off as just some luddite, but I don’t care. A tool is only as useful as it improves your life, and off-loading critical thinking does not improve your life. It actively harms your brains higher functions, making you a much easier target for propaganda and conspiratorial thinking. Letting children use this is exponentially worse than letting them use social media, and we all know how devastating the effects of that are… This would be catastrophically worse.

    But hey, good thing we dismantled the department of education! Wouldn’t want kids to be educated! just make sure they know how to write a good ai prompt, because that will be so fucking useful.