Messages

31

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 16, 2023, 01:11:10 pm »

Definitely!

32

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 15, 2023, 06:02:47 am »

The redundancy annoys me.

Yeah, there's definitely a few "tells" that it is generated.

That said, I've found it a useful tool for quickly generating NPCs or even small plot ideas. On it's own it came up with the idea of a hidden Ayleid city (?) in the heart of the Clockwork City (??) which the factotums need to hire the PCs to get into because the defences prevent them from being able to breach it (???) because the Worm Cult (????) were trying to steal an artifact from it first.

Which is batshit, but you can definitely work with it. Correcting it and re-defining parameters and exclusions make it a great brainstorming tool.

I also made it give me a summary for an entirely made up 1890s period "techno-thriller" involving sabotage of the telegram system, which was fun.

33

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: January 14, 2023, 10:48:59 am »

He added, “Her interests are all the same as his and her music is very technologically oriented,” explaining that they “both made a similar nerdy joke about a scary AI theory of the future.”

They met because they bonded over Roko's Basilisk, aka rationalists inventing Pascal's Wager, but making it Evil and Shitty.

David Gerard (of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain) specifically is responsible since he saved the receipts. He fully admits and embraces fault here.

34

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: January 10, 2023, 06:34:04 pm »

The quote was taken out of context by the British press, as part of their ongoing crusade against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

C'mon now, you don't really believe the Times, Sun, Mail and Telegraph give a single fuck about Muslim lives and wouldn't be cheering on this distorted account in any other circumstance, do you?

Dear god.  In context, the meaning is almost exactly the opposite of how it was presented.  I already knew to ignore the likes of the Daily Mail, but I thought Reuters was reputable.  I have been played.

I originally heard about this on Canadian television, but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume they dumbly parroted what they were fed... like I did.

Yeah, this is standard British press approach for people on the shit list. "The full Corbyn", as it were. And Harry is well up on the shitlist, because he's constantly calling out the British press as a malign institution that has an unhealthy relationship with the Royal Family, that threatens and bullies to get you to play along to their agenda and does this sort of thing if you don't.

It's also my understanding a lot of newspapers have actually had trouble getting advance copies of the book, which means the British press's poisonous response has been quite effective in shaping the discourse around the book in the opening days. But yeah, I treat anything I hear about certain people with a massive grain of salt because of the brain worms the press has here, and Harry is very high up on that list.

35

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 10, 2023, 10:37:57 am »

Meanwhile I'm using the AI to shitpost with my RP group:

36

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: January 10, 2023, 10:32:04 am »

But I'm sure if anything can be said about the British press, it's how fairly they treat people who have undertaken (and won) legal action against them for libel in the past. 

37

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: January 10, 2023, 10:28:15 am »

The quote was taken out of context by the British press, as part of their ongoing crusade against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

C'mon now, you don't really believe the Times, Sun, Mail and Telegraph give a single fuck about Muslim lives and wouldn't be cheering on this distorted account in any other circumstance, do you?

38

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 06, 2023, 02:55:49 pm »

A true Scientologist would simply be able to redirect matter to avoid catching Covid.

Report them to the nearest OSA official.

39

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 06, 2023, 04:35:08 am »

It then took a month to get my energy levels back to approaching normal. I am fairly certain it was Covid, despite the test coming back negative.

There are definitely false negatives. I know several people who've recently had a horribly bad cold that totally wasn't covid because an LFT was negative.

My partner and I both got it back in March or April 2020, shortly after it officially came to the UK. There weren't any vaccines or self tests. Masks were in short supply, and it wasn't yet clear if it was a good idea to buy them or to leave them so there'd be enough left for the nurses. I got sent to a hospital and made to wait in a chalk square outside, then someone in head-to-toe PPE asked me some questions and watched my breathing, without any physical contact. It's weird to remember it being taken that seriously. They said I'd probably had it and we should both isolate for a week. I don't remember much from that week except being absolutely fucking knackered. I'm also pretty sure it made me less mentally sharp for months. No fun.

We're both up to three or four jabs now, I've lost count.

Yeah, I'm fairly convinced that I'm in the 8% (I think it was 92% accurate) that got a false answer back. I've had flu before and it didn't feel like that, with the recovery. Usually with that, once the fever breaks you start to feel much better, quite rapidly (you're still a wreck, but you're an improving wreck). And the long recovery fits Covid too well.

40

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 05, 2023, 06:13:21 pm »

I had what felt like flu for 2 weeks - one of absolute hell, one that was manageable when medicated up to the eyeballs.

It then took a month to get my energy levels back to approaching normal. I am fairly certain it was Covid, despite the test coming back negative.

41

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 05, 2023, 12:23:33 pm »

I mean, most of Tumblr sucks, absolutely. But it's still going to be an easier entry to the fediverse than Mastodon, since you know exactly what you're getting, exactly how to get it, and you aren't going to be effectively banned for breaking bizarre rules that nowhere else online has that are buried in a rules document that's functionally closer to a ToS in size and impenetrability than a list of rules.

True.

But imagine how fucking annoying the combination of fandom and Mastadon will be.

42

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 05, 2023, 12:40:14 am »

Mastodon is also very white, vaguely utopian, and extremely averse to anything remotely confrontational or controversial. Example: you have to content-warn photos of food. Selfies with eye contact. Anything to do with protests or activism.

It's unusable for most purposes, there's a barrier to entry, and Tumblr is going to be federating with it in the near future -- so, soon, there won't even be a point. Just make a Tumblr and avoid the limitations and bizarre social requirements.

I'm sure that joining up with the people who brought us this will not be a strange and highly toxic brew:

43

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: January 03, 2023, 03:08:36 pm »

Mastadon is weird and very prone to groupthink IMO.

That's great if you want a small server to like, chat shit with people like on PD and FB. Something cosy and semi-private or based on specific niche interests works great. If you want to follow a wide variety of weird shitposters and activivists, academics and journalists it is less useful.

44

Aneristic Illusions / Re: TERFs Shit Themselves Inside Out Thread: 2022 Highlights!

« on: December 31, 2022, 09:17:31 pm »

The Sunak thing is utterly insane and I can only imagine he's saying it with no intent to follow through because...I mean, imagine triggering a constitutional crisis to appease fucking TERFs.

45

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Picking Cain's Brains

« on: December 29, 2022, 02:09:52 pm »

In the short term, I believe the Central Russian Bank will recover and reorientate from the shock. The move came as a surprise - both the timing and that it happened at all - and so they're scrambling to recover, obviously hampered by the existing sanction regime narrowing their options. But the current run is mostly a consequence of that shock.

Longer term, the damage is done, it's just not equally distributed. EU price caps and bans on Russian oil sales, capital flight and sourcing for parts will hit harder once winter properly settles in and starts breaking things down. Being unable to source replacements, while revenue drains away and international companies refuse to work in the region will hit them hard. I don't think we'll see a dramatic tipping point like the bank run or anything, but the damage it'll do to the average Russian and the Russian military (which is already on its last legs) will almost certainly be more noticeable. Ukraine is already penetrating Russia's air space with drones, so I expect if we see mass defeats in the field, that may cause more panic than anything on the economic front - or pre-empt it.

(as an aside, still impressed with how Biden and NATO have thrashed their biggest regional rival with what is effectively a rounding error on the US military budget, and shown that NATO's combined arms docrine is still very relevant)