Random Thread

[lëtzeshark]

Random: we have a heatwave here in Luxembourg, with highs this week around 35ºC, and National Day tomorrow. (This is not usual for here, especially for June!) It would've been more pleasant weather-wise to stay in Lisbon instead, but, alas, hindsight is flawless, plus one of my collaborators there is away for a big conference in Canada this week, so I only had the timing I had to work with. At least the office I'm in isn't horribly hot despite the general lack of A/C, but, by contrast, one of the big chemistry labs is pretty much off-limits this week...

[Raphael]

Are you sure that we don't all live in one of malloc's early works?

OK, I guess if we did, Trump & friends would have been competent enough to somehow win against Iran.

[Raphael]

Random: we have a heatwave here in Luxembourg, with highs this week around 35ºC,

Same as ours, I guess, though it's a bit less hot hear. Stay un-molten.

[zompist]

man, y'all are making me feel young! I haven't even been alive for 20 years

You seem quite lively for an undead person!

Really just pointing out how interesting that sentence is from a linguistic perspective: it has two completely opposite meanings, depending on what "not" is taken as modifying.

[bradrn]

man, y'all are making me feel young! I haven't even been alive for 20 years

You seem quite lively for an undead person!

Really just pointing out how interesting that sentence is from a linguistic perspective: it has two completely opposite meanings, depending on what "not" is taken as modifying.

And, incidentally, it also gives me a different perspective on when I asked a similar question about ‘not’ and ‘even’ in the English thread!

(Though in this case I suspect it has less to do with the relative scope of ‘not’ vs ‘even’, and more to do with whether ‘not even’ as a whole is modifying ‘alive’ or ‘for 20 years’.)

[malloc]

Obviously this reflects poor writing on my part since I didn't really consider how a regime could function if it constantly wastes resources on ill-conceived pet projects and so forth. Yet whenever I reread the books, I am reminded of Trump and techbros.

Yes, but fiction has to be plausible.

It's funny how my own incompetence as a writer was reflected in the incompetence of the characters. The good guys were also remarkably inept, consistently passing up opportunities to escape their dire situation because the plot required them to die.

[Risla]

Obviously this reflects poor writing on my part since I didn't really consider how a regime could function if it constantly wastes resources on ill-conceived pet projects and so forth. Yet whenever I reread the books, I am reminded of Trump and techbros.

Yes, but fiction has to be plausible.

Alas that reality has no such constraints.

[bradrn]

Obviously this reflects poor writing on my part since I didn't really consider how a regime could function if it constantly wastes resources on ill-conceived pet projects and so forth. Yet whenever I reread the books, I am reminded of Trump and techbros.

Yes, but fiction has to be plausible.

It's funny how my own incompetence as a writer was reflected in the incompetence of the characters. The good guys were also remarkably inept, consistently passing up opportunities to escape their dire situation because the plot required them to die.

’tis often the way with bad writing.

(It’s worth noting that most bad writers never even get to this stage of realising that their writing is bad, so they never improve.)

[Raphael]

Random silliness: I just spent the early part of the night on Bluesky, because bad self-discipline and stuff. Here's a part of what that yielded:

bafkreifshgu46g2rqdlul45ddzq2b4kjng7ytyi45k3vk5kpqgqnpdaq3m.jpg (195.87 KiB) Viewed 3689 times

bafkreiaxnjmxc7pcebzipptafoifyn7bieztmqdm5ji5ttawuu25nqydlu.jpg (42.12 KiB) Viewed 3689 times

[Lērisama]

I finally understand the point of air conditioning. In completely unrelated news, I hate heat, humidity, climate change, and people who don't decide to give up on forcing people to come in when a significant number¹ are covered by a red heat warning¹.

¹ Not me thankfully, I can barely function as it is.
² I.e. Weather condition X is a threat to life even for those not especially vulnerable and you should not travel unless absolutely necessary.

[Ahzoh]

The cats have been getting along wonderfully

20260620_201312 (1) (1).jpg (210.18 KiB) Viewed 3659 times

[Raphael]

The cats have been getting along wonderfully

20260620_201312 (1) (1).jpg

They seem unimpressed. Glad that they're getting along, though.

[bradrn]

The cats have been getting along wonderfully

20260620_201312 (1) (1).jpg

They seem unimpressed. Glad that they're getting along, though.

Cats always seem unimpressed by us humans.

[linguistcat]

The cats have been getting along wonderfully

20260620_201312 (1) (1).jpg

They seem unimpressed. Glad that they're getting along, though.

Cats always seem unimpressed by us humans.

A cat who is impressed by humans isn't a very good cat, I think.

[Raphael]

Cats always seem unimpressed by us humans.

A cat who is impressed by humans isn't a very good cat, I think.

There's individual variation among cats. I've got the impression that the Youtube search function will happily serve up videos of cats who seem to believe that they're dogs.

[malloc]

One thing that I have noticed while visiting the few progressive parts of Missouri is that some progressive churches have signs out front apologizing for the history of Christian homophobia. In my honest opinion, the tech industry owes the rest of us a similar apology for its many crimes: advocating and bankrolling far right politics, attacking the livelihoods of artists and writers, plotting to replace the human race with AGI, and much more. The time has come for decent people within the industry to acknowledge their complicity in such crimes and apologize. I cannot overstate my long simmering anger at the tech industry, less still the frustration of having no outlet or hope of resolution.

[alice]

One thing that I have noticed while visiting the few progressive parts of Missouri is that some progressive churches have signs out front apologizing for the history of Christian homophobia. In my honest opinion, the tech industry owes the rest of us a similar apology for its many crimes: advocating and bankrolling far right politics, attacking the livelihoods of artists and writers, plotting to replace the human race with AGI, and much more. The time has come for decent people within the industry to acknowledge their complicity in such crimes and apologize. I cannot overstate my long simmering anger at the tech industry, less still the frustration of having no outlet or hope of resolution.

In my honest opinion there are a *lot* of groups of people who owe the rest of us apologies for various things. And, yes, the techbros would be in there.

[Ahzoh]

The cats have been getting along wonderfully

20260620_201312 (1) (1).jpg

They seem unimpressed. Glad that they're getting along, though.

The left one woke up from a nap and still has sleepy look. The right one just has resting sad face.

[tlacamazatl]

https://youtu.be/89DVI12Gggs?is=jc-RbbgkGHaqkl56

Semitic Abjads

[malloc]

In my honest opinion there are a *lot* of groups of people who owe the rest of us apologies for various things. And, yes, the techbros would be in there.

Sure although I think the tech¹ industry is pretty close to the fossil fuel industry in its negative effects on society and threats to humanity. They are straight up plotting to replace humanity with super-intelligent computers, a level of sheer ill intent that few other industries can match. They are also overwhelmingly reactionary in their politics, with like Elon Musk, Curtis Yarvin, and Terry A. Davis as particularly colorful (though hardly unique) examples. Overall the culture and ideology surrounding computing industry just seems especially toxic and malicious.

¹It has come to annoy me how computing has monopolized the word "technology". There are many kinds of technology from medicine to agriculture, yet people hear "technology" and think specifically of computers.