totm nov 2023 Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

April 2: +22⁰C

April 5: +6⁰C

April 8: +16⁰C

General Winter making a last stand?

Punxsutawney Phil LIED to us!

 

[DDE]

6 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

Punxsutawney Phil LIED to us!

 

Going by the highly scientific method of "mom and pop say so", what climate change has amounted to is having a summer and a winter with almost no transition in between.

[TheSaint]

9 hours ago, DDE said:

Going by the highly scientific method of "mom and pop say so", what climate change has amounted to is having a summer and a winter with almost no transition in between.

So, it's like living in New England?

[Nuke]

the weather has done like five different things today. so im staying in now.

[DDE]

Amazon's artificial intelligence turns out to be Rooms Full of People. Again.

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116

[kerbiloid]

58 minutes ago, DDE said:

Amazon's artificial intelligence turns out to be Rooms Full of People. Again.

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116

The rightful citizens of a true-developed civilisation should just stop paying attention on presence of the low-class serfs.

Spoiler

This would combine the advantages of people-free rooms and of human analytic capabilities, and eliminate the need in remote communication with foreign staff.

The entire XIX classic culture together with steampunk setting are based on it.

Look! They even didn't need internet for that!

Edited April 4 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

40 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

The rightful citizens of a true-developed civilisation should just stop paying attention on presence of the low-class serfs.

  Reveal hidden contents

This would combine the advantages of people-free rooms and of human analytic capabilities, and eliminate the need in remote communication with foreign staff

You know how media like Detroit: Become Human gets criticized that its androids are for some reason utterly humanlike and can just break the conditioning?

Well, maybe they weren't completely wrong.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

androids are for some reason utterly humanlike and can just break the conditioning

To solve this problem, the human servants can first be trained in a conditioning camp, where the androids break them and prepare well-mannered invisible staff.

[SunlitZelkova]

9 hours ago, DDE said:

Amazon's artificial intelligence turns out to be Rooms Full of People. Again.

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116

Lol, imagine if someone broke into the place where NASA super computers are housed and started smashing it up, and it turned out it was just a bunch of people sitting in boxes do calculations by hand and transmitting the results to each other.

[DDE]

Rosatom's hagiographic exposition at VDNKh is quite awesome for its level.

Unfortunately, it ate the Onion. It has a stand about the Nuclear Volga.

The Nuclear Volga was a 2015 April Fools by Popular Mechanics. And I'm hardly the first to notice the slip-ups. BTW, don't name your museum design studio Lorem Ipsum...

 

Posted from the cafeterium over at pavilion 34 "Aviation and space exploration". Gonna moonshine as an unpaid tour guide again

[TwoCalories]

This is kind of a first-world problem compared to some of the posts on this thread, but I just wanted to get it out somewhere.

I just got banned from not one, not two, but three Minecraft servers for pretty much no reason whatsoever. I got banned from the first two for something that I have no idea about, something about "inventory mods". I've played on those servers for months and the few mods I have on my client have never been an issue. But I got rid of them and on the third server, I got banned for ABSOLUTELY no reason. I removed any inventory mods that might have triggered the last two, but then it said I got banned for "unfair advantages".

I have NEVER touched autoclickers, hacked clients, or any actual unfair modifications. I had no mods that changed the gameplay at all. And I got banned. From another major server.

...In less than twenty-four hours...

...While thousands of users get away with hacked clients and autoclickers on the same servers.

[Lisias]

27 minutes ago, TwoCalories said:

I just got banned from not one, not two, but three Minecraft servers for pretty much no reason whatsoever. I got banned from the first two for something that I have no idea about, something about "inventory mods". I've played on those servers for months and the few mods I have on my client have never been an issue. But I got rid of them and on the third server, I got banned for ABSOLUTELY no reason. I removed any inventory mods that might have triggered the last two, but then it said I got banned for "unfair advantages".

Worrying.

You follow the rules, you are kicked. You break the rules, you are kicked.

If people don't tell you why you are being punished, they don't have to handle appeals - it's simple like that.

And since there're no rules (or they are just ignored and/or arbitrarily applied), people just don't know what to do.

Frankly... I'm avoiding online games like the plague since this happened to me... on QuakeWorld!

The novelty is that they are pulling this stunt on paying customers nowadays. It's absolutely nonsense, they're essentially changing the terms of the sale after the sale. It's a subscription? That's a sale too, it only happens that there's an expiration date on it.

Edited April 6 by Lisias
Tyops, as usulla...

[BA-Forums]

bro my neighbor is going to stare at the eclipse today without any eye protection and they argued with me about it. people can be annoying...

[DDE]

3 hours ago, BA-Forums said:

bro my neighbor is going to stare at the eclipse today without any eye protection and they argued with me about it. people can be annoying...

Well, he won't have much of a chance to see the truth later. *ba-dum-tss*

[BA-Forums]

32 minutes ago, DDE said:

Well, he won't have much of a chance to see the truth later. *ba-dum-tss*

[Lisias]

Do you know when you are reading/watching stuff on your mobile on bed, and the mobile slips from your hands and falls into your face (usually your nose)?

Steam Deck is worse.

[AstroWolfie]

Switch is bad, too

Or my 10lbs+ books I keep in my bed

[DDE]

I believe some of you like this gal. Now I see why. What a ride...

[kerbiloid]

On 4/7/2024 at 1:34 AM, TwoCalories said:

I have NEVER touched autoclickers, hacked clients, or any actual unfair modifications. I had no mods that changed the gameplay at all.

Mr. Herobrine, please, log in.

23 hours ago, BA-Forums said:

bro my neighbor is going to stare at the eclipse today without any eye protection and they argued with me about it. people can be annoying...

They can repeat it once more.

[TheSaint]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:15 AM, BA-Forums said:

bro my neighbor is going to stare at the eclipse today without any eye protection and they argued with me about it. people can be annoying...

Google Searches for 'Eyes Hurt' Spike Amid Solar Eclipse

"Think about this: think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin

[kerbiloid]

3 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that.

Wrong. It's a definition of a median person, not of the average one.

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Wrong. It's a definition of a median person, not of the average one.

I think both you are misunderstanding median and average with... mode.

[SunlitZelkova]

I’m a little bit fed up with the climate crisis.

So back in October of last year I wrote that I had an “epiphany” that resulted in me no longer being afraid of climate change.

Well, I’d like to speak about this “epiphany” for posterity and report why I no longer believe it.

In 2022 I found out I had a mental disorder. I started taking medication for it, and it immediately alleviated the acute effects, but deeper issues remained.

At the time of October 2023, I believed an omniscient force was in control of the fabric of reality, and while it made climate scientists see warning signs of disaster, it would “retcon” them around the 2030s and onward and nothing bad would happen.

So for anyone who read about my change of opinion in the sea levels thread and thought I was making a rational decision, well, you’re wrong. The only way I was able to reject the evidence pointing to CC, unfortunately, was by believing elements of reality are illusions.

I like to think of myself as someone who isn’t swayed by opinions and tries to find the facts, but this time, I failed.

Thankfully, I’ve began to return to reality.

I have to say though, journalists and activists are doing a pretty poor job of educating on the crisis.

It took me opening a Wikipedia article to realize the majority of the articles posted in the climate change thread (“The Analysis of the Sea Levels”) thread happen to constitute climate change denial.

You may roll your eyes at Wikipedia, but I did check the references and they come from either independent publications and in a couple cases scientific journals.

A list of incidents:

1. One person attributed recorded temperature increases to urban heat islands.

2. An article was once posted challenging anthropogenic causes of climate change, asserting it was natural.

3. Widespread impact skepticism.

4. Consensus denial has been seen, with assertions there are “many” scientists who question aspects of climate change.

5. A long time ago there were assertions from a few insinuating that climate scientists publish alarmist work to get funding.

6. Playing up uncertainty in climate models. It is implied by many on this forum that this uncertainty means we can’t make any predictions about the future with good probability. This is a tactic of climate change deniers, although all members of this forum are skeptics rather than deniers.

7. Criticism of the IPCC process. This form of denial originates in politicians, not in scientists as has been claimed on this forum.

97% of scientists agree climate change is happening, is human caused, and will have negative effects on the world.

The only three sources I found challenging the 97% consensus were:

1. A Forbes article written by a “lecturer in the Department of Construction Management” at a university.

2. An NHS paper from 1998.

3. An article from a think tank with questionable background.

I like to theorize as well as look at facts. So I ask “What if these claims of denial are generated by people with an ulterior motive of suppressing true dissent?”

Well, to that, I’d ask a question many on this forum seem reluctant to ask: “What if these scientists skeptical of climate change have ulterior motives?”

We know the history of organized denial of the harmful effects of smoking. We do not know of any instances where 10,000+ scientists had ulterior motives to get funding, or misinform people, or whatever, a key part of the argument that climate science is flawed and can’t be trusted.

It’s really hard to imagine thousands of people and government organizations all either conspiring to misinform or simply somehow be blind to flaws in their data and present it as surefire. Given the past history of big tobacco trying to challenge the facts about how smoking is harmful, it’s not too hard to imagine big oil funding a campaign to challenge the facts about climate change.

But there’s a devil’s advocate in the back of my head saying “maybe the science is just flawed.” The points raised by people on this forum do sound convincing. That’s why I’m fed up with it. As much as the medication is helping me to avoid from going to one extreme or the other, it’s hard to find the truth.

Even if there is a consensus and logic dictates it can be taken seriously, the flaws pointed out by climate change skeptics nonetheless make sense. They track logically, at least the ones posted on this forum do. Except the urban heat island thing. That one was debunked pretty hard by myself and others.

I often use the analogy of a coin to describe a lot of things in the world. The discourse is so vicious, the two sides in an argument may appear different but in reality are one entity. That’s the quagmire I find myself in a lot nowadays. It’s just a huge turn off from partaking in any discussion with other people about these serious topics.

And ironically this is a big issue! It’s called “bothside-ism.” It might as well be another side of a coin. Making it a three sided coin.

What am I to believe? How am I supposed to ascertain the true reality?

This is why I ultimately find myself falling back into the “false reality” philosophical/religious belief. Of course there are things that can hurt me in this world. Maybe climate change will hurt a lot of people, maybe it won’t. I’ll take things as they come and not worry about the future.

But then I think “Hey, that’s the exact belief oil companies and climate change deniers would want me to have.” And I enter another side of the coin, making it a 4 sided coin.

It’s as if you can’t actually be neutral or have your own opinion on it. Whatever you do, you’re falling into a camp and being swayed by what others desire. Your attempt to find the truth works to someone’s advantage no matter what.

Why can’t it be like, quantum physics? Where believing one theory or another and weighing the merits has no impact on daily life and can remain squarely within science?

What I do in the end is hide behind my mental disorder, which is incurable, and just smile and play without a care in the world. Neither side probably cares for the endorsement of someone with a mental disability like mine, so it doesn’t really matter what I say. Outside of family, I doubt anyone would take me seriously anyways. So I’m free to decide what I want to without being drawn into one side of the conflict, because neither side would want me.

Is this a fifth side of the coin? Or simply the ramblings of a madman with a science flavor? Who knows.

[Lisias]

12 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

What am I to believe? How am I supposed to ascertain the true reality?

You summarized the absolutely worst problem we have in our modern times. We just can't trust anyone anymore.

People had abused science in the past (see the tetraethyl lead scandal in the 20s, or the thalidomide on pregnant women in the late 50s, and many more), so we have precedence. It's not unreasonable to doubt Science, as long we have someone trustful to cover our ar... hummm... backs on things we don't understand.

We have a confidence crisis as we don't see for more than half a century. Something is broken in our institutions - worst, in the remedies our society had to countermeasure bad actors in our institutions.

How to fix that, it's something I left as an exercise to the reader (in the hopes someone answer it, because I just don't know).

About specifically the problem at hands, Climate, I have some random facts that we should take in consideration:

• Antarctica was a Tropical island in the far past
  • yeah, Earth was that hot once.
  • Oh, yeah²! There're volcanoes under the ice caps, potentially melting some of the ice too!
• There're ruins of ancient cities on the bottom of the Caribbean sea
  • yeah, Earth was that cold once (as the polar caps took way more water than nowadays, and the sea levels were way lower)
• Ice Ages are regular in this Planet, and the next one is already due.
  • We are in borrowed time.
• It's hundreds of thousands of years since the atmosphere of this Planet had so much carbon as we have today
  • What may be good for the overall planet on the long run, besides royally screwing us in the short
  • Research about the Carbon Cycle, and how Life depends of it
    • And how planets die when the Carbon Cycle ceases
• We are polluting our atmosphere with things way worse than carbon
• We are polluting our fresh watersheds with nasty things as mercury (Hg)
• We are decimating our fresh water underground reservoirs.
• We are exhausting the Oceans fauna with uncontrollable fishing. We are contaminating the Oceans with nasty wastes (like micro-plastics).
  • And this is screwing up the oxygen production, what the oceans respond with 50% of its renew in the whole planet.
• And more to come.

To the best of my knowledge, we are - indeed - witnessing a climate change. One of many that this planet had seen.

We are responsible for it? I'm pretty sure we have had contributed a bit, but the last ones happened without us, so I take all of that with a grain of salt.

But what we should really be worrying about is about the destruction of our sources of breathable air, fresh water, sea food and a potentially disastrous breakage on the Oxygen Cycle on the whole planet - and I don't see anyone talking about it.

Edited April 15 by Lisias
Hit "Save" too soon

[AlamoVampire]

I totally get that MMOs require obscene amounts of upkeep, but, with a game like Elite Dangerous <the game ive been bludgeoning myself with lately> goes into maintenance they warn you saying servers going down in X minutes we expect to be back up in 40 minutes. Well, uh.... um... maintenance began at 0100 for me, and I fully expected servers up 40 minutes later. Its 0453 and I have a mission i NEED to finish that has a 5 hour clock real time on it, and that clock IS RUNNING as I sit here shut out of the server by maintenance!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to fail this mission in all likelihood because something behind the scenes has stalled maintenance to now 3 HOURS and 15 minutes, I have 1h45 left in my mission clock, a mission that was going to net me about 300k credits and likely some parts I need for some suit, weapons and ship engineering, but, no the RNG of maintenance has decided it wants to hurt my mission and my faction reputation. I am going to be punished for failing a mission I am not allowed to finish because da servers need some poking.... I wish maintenance would end so I can finish up. I have my item, I just need 1 more location checked <for my own needs, for suit engineering> so I can get back to my ship and launch but even doing that wont happen at this rate. 

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