Wednesday, January 04, 2023

Links - 4th January 2023 (1)

Meme - "*Cyclist* WANTS TO BE TREATED LIKE A CAR. EXCEPT FOR TRAFFIC LIGHTS, STOP SIGNS, INTERSECTIONS, MINIMUM SPEED LIMITS, AND OVERTAKING LAWS"

Meme - "Cyclists when you suggest they ride in the bike lane instead of the middle of the road *Green Goblin grabs scientist by throat*"

Meme - "IS IT WORTH IT? HAMSTER EYES ARE HARVESTED EVERY DAY TO MAKE TAPIOCA PEARLS FOR BOBA. END THE VIOLENCE NOW."

Meme - "Authoritarian Left: sex work is bad because its work
Authoritarian Right: sex work is bad because its sex
Libertarian Left: sex work is good because its how i get work
Libertarian Right: sex work is good because its how i get sex"

Meme - "As promised... this is a way to garden without digging up your yard... or if you have no yard. What I love about this idea is that it is great for tomatoes that normally need plenty of space for roots to grow! Don't forget your drainage holes!" *buckets*

Meme - "We hired a dinosaur to show up at my sons birthday party. It didn't go as planned lol *Terrified kids screaming*"

Meme - Reign Murphy: *obsessive Christmas disorder* "@Target as someone with OCD I'd really appreciate it if you didn't sell my illness as a fashion statement"
derekweida: "Shut up, Pussy. You'll be fine. *amputee with gingerbread man missing a leg*"
"I met that girl through my room mate, actually. They both went to the same highschool in lowa and ever since this post went viral, she's turned her appearance around to look more normal and stopped being so sensitive"
Meme - derekweida: "What? You fuckers thought I didn't buy it? Shit..."
Meme - "my dad has grey hair and id like you to go back to your natural hair color so you can stop offending my father :("

'Glee' Actor Knew He Was Off the Show When They Let Him Cut His Hair - "Samuel Larsen, who played Joe Hart on "Glee" after cowinning season one of "The Glee Project," was known for his long locs — so when producers let him cut them, he knew it was over."

roxane gay on Twitter - "I enjoy Europe so much. I asked our lovely waiter at this restaurant in Athens if I could get chicken on my Greek salad. He said “No. Then it wouldn’t be a Greek salad.” I respect it. The salad was excellent."

Partenope Ristorante - "Note Bene: Everytime time chicken is added to a pizza or pasta, a kid in Naples disappears!"
"This is on the menu of our favorite Italian restaurant (owned and run by an actual Neapolitan chef). We love them."

Louisa 🌈👭 on Twitter - "Babysitting a 4 year old has me convinced that what video games need is “little buddy mode,” where a kid can have a character that just jogs along with you and can help/get their own encouraging score but cannot be harmed"

Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego - "Aim: Children frequently ingest coins (generally with minimal reported side effects); however, the ingestion of other items has been subject to less academic study. Parental concern regarding ingestion applies across a range of materials. In this study, we aimed to determine typical transit times for another commonly swallowed object: a Lego figurine head.
Methods: Six paediatric health-care professionals were recruited to swallow a Lego head. Previous gastrointestinal surgery, inability to ingest foreign objects and aversion to searching through faecal matter were all exclusion criteria. Pre-ingestion bowel habit was standardised by the Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. Participants ingested a Lego head, and the time taken for the object to be found in the participants stool was recorded. The primary outcome was the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score.
Results: The FART score averaged 1.71 days. There was some evidence that females may be more accomplished at searching through their stools than males, but this could not be statistically validated.
Conclusions: A toy object quickly passes through adult subjects with no complications. This will reassure parents, and the authors advocate that no parent should be expected to search through their child's faeces to prove object retrieval."

Ark. Woman Befriended Mom's Killer, Then He Murdered Her - "Martha McKay was kind to Travis Lewis, who was convicted and released after he killed her mother and cousin in 1996... Family friend Frank Byrd, who’d driven McKay to the state penitentiary to see Lewis, told her he didn’t think it was a good idea, but “she didn’t answer me,” he says.  Her family also warned her to be careful. “We had said, ‘Just stay away from him. It's a bad juju type of thing.’ But she wouldn't do it," says Hutton.  A longtime Buddhist, McKay wrote Lewis letters in prison and supported his early, paroled release.  “We were contacted every time he came up for parole,” says Hutton. “None of us would OK it except for her.” McKay also felt bad that he was so young when the murders took place – and believed his claim that someone else was responsible, says Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen. When Lewis was finally released on parole in 2018, McKay quietly gave him a job doing work on the property, Hutton says.  But before her death, she fired him. Police had heard about a theft at McKay's house before her murder, says Crittenden County Chief Investigator Todd Grooms. After she died, Hutton read in her diary that she'd sold a chandelier for $10,000 cash, which she stashed in the house.  Travis happened to be there that day, says Hutton. “Then the money vanished. She fired him after the money disappeared,” she says."
Clearly her fault for being racist and firing him
Amidst all the heartwarming stories of reconciliation, we can't forget the ones where it doesn't turn out so well

Kangaroo attack leaves 77-year-old alpaca breeder dead near Albany in WA's Great Southern - "Peter Eades, 77, was attacked on Sunday on his property in Redmond, 25 kilometres north-west of Albany, in the state's Great Southern region. Police said Mr Eades had been keeping the three-year-old kangaroo as a pet... Police said they were forced to kill the kangaroo to make it safe for paramedics to treat Mr Eades... The last reported fatal attack by a kangaroo is believed to have been in New South Wales in 1936."

Meme - "Mom, I'm going to a sleepover to Kate"
"Ok son, but please don't forget to wear protection"
"Mom I'm 14"
"And I am 28"

Sujay Kansagra, MD on Twitter - "True story:
Surgeon: Did someone fart?
Silence
Surgeon: I need to know if someone farted. I may have perforated bowel.
Med student: I farted"

Meme - "Obsessive stalker at your serv(...)
Hello cute girls of /r9k/. Tired of feeling unwanted? Uncared? Undesired? Allow me to introduce myself. Im a sociopathic, obsessive and unhinged stalker. With your CONSENT i can follow you, stalk your social media. Send you "unsolicited" calls and messages. Jerk off to your pictures and send you the video. You will never feel unloved again because ill tell you everyday how much love you (you don't have to reply back) If you have a PO box i can send you love letters and recordings of my poetry to you. (poetry sample down bellow this thread) I can be obsessed about you, think about you every day, abuse you, love you and make you feel appreciated.
*I will NOT interviene in your real life
*I will NEVER harm you in real life
*You CAN terminate this service whenever you feel like it, i won't insist. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
I only stalk one girl at time so if you are up to it send me a message fast and we can figure this out."

Meme - "Eastern Europe is a magical place"
"Ukraine fans turned a Russia flag upside down to insult Putin, but Bosnia fans thought it was a Serbian flag and attacked them."

Greg Price on Twitter - "House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD):  "[Republicans] have made it quite clear they want to eliminate what they call the Deep State. The Deep State is a cadre of professionals dedicated to honoring the Constitution and the laws of this country."
Broke: "The Deep State is a right-wing conspiracy"
Woke: "The Deep State is real and a good thing""

Robert Dur on Twitter - "How much does author prominence affect peer review?
🔹If referees can see that a paper is coauthored by a Nobel laureate, close to 80% recommend R&R or Accept
🔹The same paper is rejected by 65% if only the lesser known author is shown"

Meme - "I'm installing mods"
"TO fix the bugs?"
*look*
"To fix the bugs, right? *Padme with bigger breasts*"

Big E on Twitter - "Let’s do a drone light show over an uncontacted tribe and become their gods"

Edible Animal Cell - "Edible Animal Cell made from a Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Grapes, Raspberries, Nerds, Gummy Worms, Big League Chew and Fruit Roll-up"

Chinese man climbs 30-foot electricity pole to do sit-ups; causes power outage in Chengdu - "a man climbed up a utility pole to do stomach crunches off its top, stunning eyewitnesses and causing a power cut to thousands of homes"

Meme - "What are you doing step train?!
No train had ever touched Thomas like this before. His wheels felt weak"

Teacher Rickrolled by inspired quantum physics essay - "Breathing life into a very old meme, physics student Sairam Gudiseva Rickrolled his teacher in spectacular fashion, inserting every word of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up into an essay.  Getting each word to line up with the margin would be no mean feat with any piece of writing, let alone an assessment of the influence of Danish scientist Niels Bohr on quantum theory... Perhaps the best known example of interpolating song lyrics where they don't belong came from BBC presenter Chris Packham, who over a number of years slipped Smiths' song names into episodes of Springwatch.
'Never has a man influenced physics so profoundly as Niels Bohr in the early 1900's'"

Denmark's Navy Oaks Repurposed - "Massive tree-planting programs seem to be all the rage these days, as a way of saving the planet from climate change and global warming. But there was a time when trees, specifically oaks, were planted not to ward off warming but to wreak war. Before steel replaced wood in ship construction, oaks were in high demand to supply building material for naval fleets. And to provide the massive timbers required for large warships, the trees needed to be around 200 years old. So when such trees became scarce, European rulers rushed to plant oaks, convinced that, while the best time to plant an oak was 200 years ago, the next best time was now, i.e., then. Alas, shipbuilding technology outpaced the oaks: by the time the trees matured steel was supreme, and there was no need to make wooden warships. The oaks still stand, forming large forests of high-quality timber. France has its Forêt de Bercé (visited by the IOS as part of the Pre-Conference Tour in 2012), which has provided beams to reconstruct the spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral; Sweden the oak forest on the island of Visingsö, where about 300,000 oaks were planted in the 1830s; the UK has its Trafalgar Oaks planted at the bidding of Lord Nelson; even the U.S. has a Naval Live Oaks Reservation in Florida originally intended for shipbuilding. In the case of Denmark, the story is dramatic. During the Battle of Copenhagen of 1807, British naval forces bombarded the town, forcing its surrender. Then the whole of the Danish navy was seized and the citizens of Copenhagen had to stand and watch as the British sailed away with their ships, which constituted an estimated 90,000 mature oak trees (each ship used up an average 2,000 oaks). Crown Prince Frederick VI, then regent, needed to rebuild the navy from the acorns up. He declared a ban on felling oak trees, proclaimed all oaks, felled or hale, property of the crown, and started planting oaks like there was no tomorrow—knowing that the oaks in fact needed some 73,000 tomorrows before they could float his descendants’ boats. The story goes that early this century Queen Margrethe II got a call from the Royal Forestry Commissioner of Denmark informing her that finally her ship had come in and the oaks were ripe for the picking. This seems to be an urban myth, but it is certainly true that some 16,000 oaks planted in North Zealand, an area north of Copenhagen, and others planted in other Danish woodlands, offer some outstanding oak timber. They are known as flådeege (“fleet oaks” or “navy oaks”), and they are now being put to some interesting uses. Some are close to the original purpose, such as the restoration of a historic battle ship, Fregatten Jylland, now a museum and tourist attraction, or the reconstruction of a Viking ship from the 11th century, which involved cleaving the huge oak logs with mallets, wedges, and axes. A project to use a sailing ship for environmentally friendly maritime transport also used timber from the navy oaks to restore their vessel. Operagoers in Copenhagen wanting to get to the modern opera house on the island of Holmen do so by crossing bridges built with beams milled from the navy oaks (the island was the site of the port from where the Danish ships were stolen in 1807). You can even order a dining table made from these oaks. But perhaps the most remarkable use the oaks have been put to is the construction of 150 chairs. Known simply Den Runde Stol (The Round Chair1), Hans Wegner’s simple and stylish design is one of the most famous pieces of Danish furniture (and there is plenty of competition)."

Thread by @najumtariq on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Our parents are often misunderstood.  when mom comes and sits in your room, she isn’t invading your personal space. sometimes, she’s just trying to escape her own thoughts.  when dad wakes you up early in the morning and takes you to buy groceries, he is just trying to bond with you, in his own way.  every time mom asks you, “what are you smiling at?” when you are using your phone, she isn’t being nosy. she just wants to be a part of your life, because the two of you barely talk anymore.  every time dad asks, “kaha jaare ho?” i know it feels like an investigation, but i suppose, he just wants to know. we often share our live location with our friends, but how often do we share it with our parents?  you know, mom doesn’t hate ‘bahar ka khaana’, she hates that she had cooked food for you, but you ordered instead. and when she cooks your favourite meal, all she hopes to hear you say is, ‘it’s tasty.’  dad will say things like, “i earn for you all”, but grunt if you buy books or more clothes. dads are weird that way, but i suppose, he just wants you to spend wisely. growing up, he has struggled, and he understands the value of money.  i know, i know, there’s a generation gap, but let’s not forget, while we are growing up, they are growing older, too. they are humans, too, and just like us, our parents can feel lonely and are misunderstood."

Meme - "You PIGS BETTER LET ME IN OR I'LL BLOW YouR HouSE "
"Mmm *slurp*"
"Oh shit *slurp*"
*Splooosh*

Meme - "Over thinking kills your pp / happiness"

Zalgo Text Generator ― LingoJam
Demonic text distortion

LingoJam | Make a Translator Online! - "Welcome to LingoJam, a website where you can create your own translator.  Simply click the button below, start adding translation rules, and you'll have a shareable online translator. No signup needed!"

Tokyo's Urban Planning Secrets Revealed in New Book - Bloomberg - "Major central planning efforts have made Japan’s capital one of the safest, cleanest and most public-transit oriented cities in the world. Yet its labyrinthian network of streets, restaurants hidden in dark alleyways and entire buildings filled with a medley of shops reveal another side of the city that is more spontaneous and idiosyncratic. This paradox between centrally planned and chaotic Tokyo is one that Keio University associate professor and architect Jorge Almazan and co-author Joe McReynolds seek to tackle in their new book “Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City.” Inspired by the science of complex systems, they demonstrate how Tokyo was shaped not solely by disorder or grand design but by the intermingling of daily small choices that create spontaneous patterns from the bottom up — and tips for how to consciously harness them... This is going to sound wild to anyone who lives in the US, but for any two-story rowhouse in Tokyo, the owner can by right operate a bar, a restaurant, a boutique, a small workshop on the ground floor — even in the most residential zoned sections of the city. That means you have an incredible supply of potential microspaces. Any elderly homeowner could decide to rent out the bottom floor of their place to some young kid who wants to start a coffee shop, for example. When you look at what we call yokocho alleyways — charming, dingy alleyways that grew out of the black markets post-World War II, which are some of the the most iconic and beloved sections of the city now — it’s all of these tiny little bars and restaurants just crammed into every available space... small businesses get a lot of interesting tax incentives. Liquor licenses are extremely cheap and easy. A liquor license in an American city can sometimes run up to $500,000. You’re not going to have a little four-seat, mom-and-pop bar for the locals. So those regulatory and policy choices that we make fundamentally determine what our cities are going to feel like...  in the US, debates about urban policy are skewed by the fact that homeowners’ property is the closest thing they have to a savings account. Usually for retirement, people are counting on their property values going up so they have a strong incentive to resist changes that might threaten them. A lot of the dynamism we see in the emergent urbanism of Tokyo are things that reduce predictability, which reduce property values. When it comes to, politically, how do we make Tokyo-esque urbanism feasible in America, the key is building a coalition of folks who are more interested in the dynamism of their cities than they are in the value of their particular property."

The Chip Shortage Was Supposed to Be a ‘Sputnik Moment.’ What Happened? - Bloomberg - "China, home to a huge chunk of the manufacturing of finished electronics goods manufacturing, is currently trying to build out its domestic chip industry and reduce its dependence on imports. The country’s efforts are proceeding at a breakneck pace, despite efforts to counter them... The US has never done industrial policy in the way that other countries have. Silicon Valley’s vaguely anti-authority version of capitalism has created some of the world’s largest and most influential companies—bolstering the argument that all government needs to do is get out of the way... But historically, other countries have been less hands-off when it comes to chips. When South Korea and Taiwan decided to compete in chipmaking, they allocated capital, as well as support within higher education to create the kind of talent needed to get the industry going. For both South Korea and Taiwan, there was a belief that building a modern economy was a gateway to national security. Both went through various stops and starts, with resources wasted and companies failing along the way.  Now, in TSMC and Samsung, they have companies that even Intel is struggling to keep up with"

'At 6pm, it feels like it’s lunchtime': Low pay, long hours driving away Singapore's young architect hopefuls - "It took Daniel (not his real name) seven years to finish studying architecture at polytechnic and university – but less than 15 months on the job to decide he didn’t see a future in it.  Low pay, slow progression, gruelling hours and complicated work were some reasons...   “At 6pm, it feels like it’s lunchtime … the halfway mark of my day. You start around 9am, and on average, end at midnight, by the time you get home it’s 1am or 2am.”  The pay also feels disproportionate to the work, the architectural assistant told CNA.  A company once offered him a starting salary of S$2,700 even though he has a master's degree, which is generally expected of architecture students... In a survey last August by the Singapore Institute of Architects, only 7 per cent of young graduates said they were likely to stay in the profession in the long run.   The top reasons behind this: Low wages and long hours, a lack of work-life balance and high stress.  The biggest factors said to cause stress at work were heavy workloads, unreasonable clients, and conflicting requirements by authorities...   “People can bid a ridiculous price just to get the job, and I think that is very, very harmful to the industry.  “It’s just getting lower and lower, then obviously the firms don't have money and cannot pay the staff, therefore the whole brain drain.”   Another big challenge is reconciling the reality of the job with what one had expected it to be, Jessica said.  Many students are drawn to architecture because of their passion for design, but the designing of buildings is “only 5 per cent of the job scope”, she said.  The bulk of actual work involves managing contracts, construction, administrative work and navigating sometimes conflicting restrictions set out by various authorities.   And though school emphasises creativity in design, it is difficult to flex these muscles at work.  Daniel said: “There’s budget, compliances, and Singapore being so small, a lot of projects are alterations and additions, minor renovations where everything is all pre-fixed... projects done overseas are “very different” compared to those in Singapore.  “Singapore is known for being safe, but sometimes it restricts us in a way where we are not allowed, or we wouldn’t dare to take risks because of other factors involved.”...   The amount of “abortive work” can also be demoralising, said the graduates. Jessica cited clients who ask for “option after option after option”, only to end up choosing the original design... With greater access to online sources, some also feel qualified to make certain architectural demands, even if they aren’t trained, Jessica added.Some clients may also contact architects after hours and on weekends for minor changes, “believing their work should be your priority”, said Ms Tan, who works in a small firm."

Work from home in JB: Some Singaporeans are relocating amid border reopening, hybrid arrangements - "a small group of Singaporeans who have relocated to Johor Bahru following the reopening of borders.  For these workers, being based in Johor has become more viable as companies are allowing their employees to work from home either fully or via a hybrid arrangement...   Remote working is an increasingly popular choice for Singapore workers.   A recent survey of 1,000 workers conducted by recruitment agency Randstad showed that two in five respondents said that they would not accept a job if they were unable to work from home or anytime they wanted...   A major factor that has prompted Singaporeans to relocate to Johor Bahru is lower costs for housing, groceries and other amenities.  “Not all things are cheaper in Johor Bahru than in Singapore. But for most items, we do save quite a bit”... the favourable exchange rate has made it more economical to live in Johor Bahru...   Are there any security concerns for Singaporeans who opt to live in Johor Bahru? Those interviewed by CNA downplayed these concerns.  Ahead of the border reopening, there were social media posts speculating that Singaporeans may be targetted by snatch thieves when they visit Johor Bahru.   However, the state police have rejected the speculation, citing Johor’s falling crime rates in 2021 and the first quarter of this year."

Twitter is turning us all insane - "The eminent social psychologist Jonathan Haidt recently wrote a hard-hitting article showing that use of certain forms of social media – particularly by girls just entering adolescence – was directly and causally associated with higher rates of depression and depression-related symptoms since the early-to-mid 2010s. I had been thinking along broadly similar lines, particularly with regard to Twitter, and how its incentives are structured, compared to those that characterise healthy human interactions. The extent of its harmful pathology has recently been brought home to me as a consequence of those deliberations... it bypasses the traditional means for measuring the quality of communication... anyone, regardless of competence or social status, can comment to anyone else's entire network of followers, merely by commenting on something the latter posted... This “democratisation” of communication enables a parasitism completely divorced from competence. It massively inflates noise relative to signal, bypassing all the screening mechanisms that have been so painstakingly developed to shield us from incessant noise in the real world.   The third way Twitter breaks the norms of standard human interaction is the zero cost – and even potential benefit – it imposes on those who engage in flagrant ethical misconduct. It facilitates the implied moral elevation that accrues to the accuser, who adopts the position of virtuous judge merely by formulating an accusation, however vague, ill-founded and scurrilous...   Too often, therefore, the medium stimulates a reactive rage, as it denies to even “competent” users two of the main privileges traditionally granted to them: the presumption of innocence and the right and ability to engage in effective self-defence...   I believe that Twitter's reward structure, even more than Facebook's, incentivises malignant narcissism. It enables, and benefits, free-riding and prioritises psychopathic motivation. And it garners disproportionate attention in doing so, capitalising on the attractiveness of outrageous behaviour, while externalising all the associated and inevitable costs to the innocent broader society. This is the psychological equivalent of the tragedy of the commons; the psychological equivalent to pollution of the air we all breathe... Haidt noted that Twitter indeed cuts the link between “competence or value-creation and prestige/reward." Pinker, likewise, observed: “The contrast between Twitter and face-to-face communication is profound. I have been astounded at how some of my students and younger colleagues think nothing of spitting utterly gratuitous and unjustified snark at respected figures in their fields. I have to remind them that they may meet these figures at a conference some day, or that they might be on their tenure or grant review committees. The transition from meetings to Zoom in the past two years may have exacerbated this, but I suspect the main enabler is the sense that their reference group is their Twitter same-age peers, and that they don’t have cues reminding them they’re part of a multi-generational community.”    Pinker added: “...there [also] seems to be a dynamic of weaponising social justice, so that as our society legitimately expands rights for black people, women, gay people, and transgender people, it simultaneously creates weapons for sociocultural warfare, handing aggressive professionals a moralistic cudgel with which they can demonise their competitors. In this case destructive trolling could also be a side-effect of moral progress. Note that this would be consistent with the appeal of moralistic mobbing among younger generations – in status competition with their seniors, they are disadvantaged along every dimension but one, claimed moral superiority.”... Here’s an uncomfortable conclusion: it does not take that many free-riders or criminals (or people who simply just don’t care, and would just as soon see everything burn) to radically destabilise complex social organisations. I spoke recently with the journalist Andy Ngo about the anarchist group Antifa, for example, after being informed by some Democrats I was corresponding with that this group “didn’t really exist.” I didn’t know what they meant, until I asked Andy how many truly active Antifa cells he thought existed in the US, and how many active, full-time equivalent “members” each cell might have. He thought 40 and 20. That’s 800. All that damage, from 800 anarchists. That’s the Pareto principle: a small number of agents in any organisation (or its equivalent) pull all the weight.   It is worth remembering that one per cent of the US population accounts for two thirds of all violent crime (and a minority of that one per cent are repeat offenders). Have we built “communication” systems that are capable of destabilising our entire society? Haidt believes that it was the “mere” introduction of the retweet and like buttons that facilitated the tit-for-tat sharing of emotionally triggering content; particularly that capable of generating outrage. If a tech innovation that “small” can exacerbate polarisation on a societal scale, how much disruption can these communication technologies taken as a whole create? Enough to bring us down?"

Kids: Stranger Danger! - FML - "Today, I was going into a store and saw a woman roughly handling a screaming toddler. I kept walking, until I heard the kid scream, "Help! You’re not my mommy!” I called 911 and stood behind the car to keep her from taking off. The cops arrived to see me fending off blows from a very pissed off grandma. FML"

Meme - "Wife" "Wife's boyfriend"
"Girlfriend" "Girlfriend's girlfriend"
"You'll own nothing. And you'll be happy"

Meme - George Takei @GeorgeTakei: "The CIA assessment concludes that Russians interfered with our election. With the margin so close, the result is illegitimate. #HeyElectors" George Takei @GeorgeTakei: "Here's a simple rule: Never elect any election deniers into positions that oversee our elections."

Meme - "PBS" *NPC*

Meme - "The real story should have been this guy going on national tv with this neck beard"
"Christian Nationalism on the rise"
"It's like a meme jumped off your screen and into real life"

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