Sunday, April 14, 2024

Links - 14th April 2024 (2)

Man aims for armadillo, but ricochet wounds his mother-in-law - "A south Georgia man shot an armadillo, but he ended up accidentally wounding his mother-in-law when the bullet ricocheted off the mammal... Larry McElroy, 54, fired a 9-mm pistol at the armadillo... the bullet killed the armadillo, but bounced off the animal, hit a fence, traveled through the back door of the mother-in-law's mobile home and the recliner in which she was sitting and struck her in the back."

Saudi Arabia's first male robot ‘harasses’ woman reporter on live TV; netizens call it 'pervert, womaniser' - "Saudi Arabia's first male robot, Muhammad, has courted controversy after it was seen ‘harassing’ a female journalist on live TV. A seven-second video was shared widely on social media, wherein the robot seemingly touched the female reporter, Rawiya Al-Qasimi, "inappropriately" during its debut at DeepFest in Riyadh."

Why Building a Modern Manual-Transmission Car Is So Complicated - "The transmission itself might be basic, but building a manual-transmission car is extremely complex. And I’m not just talking about making the business case for a niche option sold only to true believers (in America, at least). Frankly, plugging a manual transmission into a modern car requires some weird engineering."

Tel Aviv University develops personalized self-treatment to prevent development of PTSD - "Anovel project led by TAU’s Faculty of Medicine, the Yezreel Valley College, and Microsoft Israel R&D Center will enable individuals to halt the development of PTSD following a traumatic event through personalized self-treatment on their smartphones or computers."

Samsung Presents First “Samsung Safety Truck” Prototype - "Samsung Electronics Argentina unveiled to the public the first Samsung Safety Truck, a technology for trucks which seeks to prevent road accidents inovertaking situations on roads...      Samsung Safety Truck leverages two built-in front cameras and a specially-designed Ingematica transportation software platform to capture and transmit a picture of the road ahead, enabling trailing vehicles to evaluate more accurately passing potential and make more informed driving decisions."
No news since 2020, and little since 2016. It was always obvious this was a marketing gimmick

Meme - "It's better to cum a shitload than to shit a cumload. Until we meet again."
"Its better to have a hole in your sock than a sock in your hole"

Meme - "This PETA ad looks like they had a threesome with a chicken and it blew their minds"

Meme - "Expecting some magic out of this lad
Japan
TADA"

Meme - Mark Kogan: "To all you anti-semites and racists out there: consider this. In 50 or 100 years, Israel will still be Jewish. Your countries will NOT, however. Europe will be browner and blacker, and so will Asia. Chances are your grandchildren will not look like you and if they do, your great-grandchildren won't. My descendants will rule over your descendants who will learn to hate their own heritage and There is NOTHING you can do about it."
Mark Kogan: "To all the people trying to get me banned by FB: have allies at FB, you do not. You can report me all you want but I'll NEVER get banned."
I can't find the original posts or who this guy is, so this might be fake

Meme - Reece @JeffHardyStan: "Bro, this Amazon review is wild
Brand: Clone-A-Willy
CLONE-A-WILLY - Silicone Penis Casting Kit for DIY Dildo (Light Skin TOne)
Hoes aint shit
This bitch was givin me top for like 5 mins talmbout "its too big my jaw hurts" n I was like nahh ik my shit aint that big. I had to order this shit and clone my meat and ian gon lie I sucked it for 30 minutes straight and i aint even gag once. ole lyin ass"

Meme - "The virgin Samurai
rich kid, has had to train years to even lift his armour
order was destroyed because muh tradition
armour and position has been bought with daddy's money too fat so looks dumb anyway
katana made out of steel folded 1.000.000 times actually has no carbon left in it
back up weapon is another katana, is screwed when the situation changes
Wears an "oni" mask in an attempt to look scary, still no taller than 150cm
is an elite unit, only because he decided he is
flip flop slippers are a bruh moment
The chad Landsknecht
lumberjack from the schwarzwald, has never had to train a day in his life
his presence alone is enough to strike fear into his opponents
going into battle is no excuse to not look fresh, biggest stacy magnet of the 16th century
even taller than his 170 cm long zweihander, swings it around like a butterknife
back up weapons ar a pike a katabalger and a musket ready for every situation
armour only slows him down his pecks, calves and biceps are as hard as steel"

Meme - "How to not get raped in India *Women with cow heads and men respecting them*"

Meme - Woman with big breasts exposing cleavage: "My memes"
Man looking: "Y'all"

Inspired by the Chinese trend, a U of T grad is renting out her time to the socially anxious and isolated - The Globe and Mail - "She rents out her time, offering companionship for those in need, whether it’s joining them for meals, exercising, shopping, travelling or attending medical appointments... Chinese state media have dubbed such work the “companionship economy,” partly fuelled by the country’s rising number of single people... The media have said such businesses could provide flexible job opportunities. China has been grappling with a slowing economy and high youth unemployment, which reached a record high in June, with one in five youth jobless.  According to a 2021 survey by China Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, nearly 60 per cent of the 1,535 respondents had utilized a companionship service. More than one-third sought a gaming partner, while another third paid for a running or workout buddy. The majority of the survey’s participants belong to China’s one-child generation, known as “the loneliest generation.”  In Japan, similar services have also been documented... One time, she added, she was asked to sort mail for a client who hadn’t socialized with anyone for a year.  Ms. Li described many of her clients as sensitive, anxious or prone to overthinking. Another group is those who pursue a highly efficient, practical form of socialization. “If it’s with friends, they need to consider their friends’ feelings and cannot demand too much,” Ms. Li said.  They also believe “they don’t need to invest too much time and energy into getting to know someone or forming a new relationship in order to receive emotional support. … They can just pay and solve the issue.” Most of Ms. Li’s clients are women aged 25 to 35, many of whom live alone. Due to safety concerns, Ms. Li does not accept male clients. The only two occasions on which she provided services to men were when she acted as their translator for U.S. visa appointments... Zed Gao, an assistant professor at the American University of Paris who has studied Chinese immigrants’ identity, belonging and mental health, said he thinks there is room for the companionship economy to develop in Chinese communities in Canada.  Dr. Gao said Chinese immigrants might be likely to seek these services because of hardships involved in their process of adjusting to a new culture, including a lack of social network. The stigma attached to mental health disorders in Chinese culture might prevent Chinese immigrants from seeking help from families, friends and even professional therapists, he added."

Why Do Animals Keep Evolving into Crabs? | Scientific American - "A crab-like body plan has evolved at least five separate times among decapod crustaceans, a group that includes crabs, lobsters and shrimp. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a name for it: carcinization.  So why do animals keep evolving into crab-like forms? Scientists don't know for sure, but they have lots of ideas.  Carcinization is an example of a phenomenon called convergent evolution, which is when different groups independently evolve the same traits. It's the same reason both bats and birds have wings. But intriguingly, the crab-like body plan has emerged many times among very closely related animals... many crustaceans that resemble crabs, like the tasty king crab that's coveted as a seafood delicacy, aren't even technically "true crabs." They've adopted a crab-like body plan, but actually belong to a closely related group of crustaceans called "false crabs." When a trait appears in an animal and sticks around through generations, it's a sign that the trait is advantageous for the species — that's the basic principle of natural selection. Animals with crabby forms come in many sizes and thrive in a wide array of habitats, from mountains to the deep sea. Their diversity makes it tricky to pin down a single common benefit for their body plan, said Joanna Wolfe, a research associate in organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Wolfe and colleagues laid out a few possibilities in a 2021 paper in the journal BioEssays. For example, crabs' tucked-in tail, versus the lobster's much more prominent one, could reduce the amount of vulnerable flesh that's accessible to predators. And the flat, rounded shell could help a crab scuttle sideways more effectively than a cylindrical lobster body would allow... There's another possible explanation: "It's possible that having a crab body isn't necessarily advantageous, and maybe it's a consequence of something else in the organism," Wolfe said. For example, the crab body plan might be so successful not because of the shell or tail shape itself, but because of the possibilities that this shape opens up for other parts of the body, said Luque, who is a co-author of the 2021 paper with Wolfe... "We think that the crab body plan has evolved so many times independently because of the versatility that the animals have," Luque said. "That allows them to go places that no other crustaceans have been able to go."  The crab-like body plan also has been lost multiple times over evolutionary time — a process known as decarcinization... But for better or worse, humans won't be turning into crabs anytime soon. "Our body isn't modular like that," Wolfe said. "[Crustaceans] already have the right building blocks.""

70 million-year-old giant dinosaur skeleton found connected from skull to tail - "The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association at the Cruzy Museum, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research, identified the nearly 10-meter-long (32.8-foot-long) fossil as a Titanosaur skeleton upon excavation. Boschetto, who has been a member of the association for eight years, told CNN that while unearthing dinosaur remains is “always exciting and interesting for scientific research and the understanding of the ecosystems of that time,” finding the bones in their almost original anatomical position is what makes this find extraordinary."

You’ve tried plant-based meat, but here come meat-based plants - "A team of South Korean researchers at Yonsei University have developed a hybrid rice variant that’s quite literally filled with beef. The lab-grown rice grains were infused with cow muscle and fat cells, so they are one part plant and one part meat. The rice is also an appetizing shade of bright pink, which tends to happen when flesh enters the picture. The team hopes to eventually offer a cheaper and more sustainable source of protein with a much lower carbon footprint than actual beef. It’ll also save time for those who enjoy a nice beef bowl over rice—the rice is the beef bowl... the rice grains taste like beef sushi, which makes sense given the ingredients."

Meme - "The guy at Whole Foods telling me how great a vegan diet is. *Gollum from Lord of the Rings cartoon*"

Plant-based meat startups are adding real animal fat to the mix: ‘It didn’t sizzle right, it didn’t smell right' | Fortune - "Today, vegetarians or vegans make up just 5% of Americans, roughly the same portion as two decades ago. And those carnivores who are interested in cutting back on their meat intake—including the three founders who Fortune spoke with for this story—are more likely to substitute beef with chicken, or vegetables, than a faux-beef patty.  “Many people would rather reduce the number of times they eat burgers rather than having a meat alternative that doesn’t taste quite as good and where they’re not sure what is in it,” Rosemary Green, a sustainability professor at the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine, told Fortune...   Animal fat, which is solid at room temperature, is especially hard to replicate using plant-based oils, says Hoxton Farms’ Jamilly. (Even coconut oil, the most solid of the plant fats, melts at around 76 degrees Fahrenheit, a far much lower melting point than animal fat.)...   “People care most about flavor, and then price and health,” Choppy co-founder Saba Fazeli tells Fortune. Mostly-plant products like his, he says, are the future, rather than absolutes. “It tastes like what you’d expect, and it’s better for you and the planet.”"

Plant-based meat’s fatal flaw makes it the latest victim of the everything bubble: ‘Worse-tasting products that aren’t healthier than the real thing’ - "The interest rate shock that followed the highest inflation since the 1980s have created a world where money is just more expensive and it’s disrupting business models from dating apps to streaming services to commercial office leasing. And then there’s plant-based meat... So what went wrong with the plant-based meat promises? It comes down to price, taste, and the health factor, according to industry analysts and former workers...  “Plant based proteins [are] listed typically at a price premium, and typically when you're talking about traditional beef, a 30% to 40% price premium, so I think that's a very challenging sell in this inflationary environment," Alex Frederick, senior emerging technology analyst at Pitchbook, told Fortune. “Also, in an inflationary environment, it's challenging to get consumers to try new or more premium products.”... The presence of specialty lab-developed ingredients is also a concern for some people as well as a marketing point of pride for competitors (Chipotle declined to carry Beyond or Impossible meats in its stores, instead developing its own alt-meat that it boasted was “grown on a farm, not in a lab.”)...  In 2020, half of consumers believed plant-based meats were healthy, but by 2022, that portion fell to 38%"

How Driving Slowly in the Left Lane Can Cause Accidents - "Driving slower than other drivers while in the left lane can cause traffic accidents because when slow drivers are in the left and right lanes of a highway, faster drivers have to maneuver between the cars and change lanes several times, which increase the likelihood of an accident.  In addition, when faster drivers are trying to maneuver through slow traffic, they are more likely to speed up when passing slower drivers. This can cause the faster vehicles to make sudden, quick brakes which can potentially lead to rear-end collisions.  Road rage is another factor... Studies reveal that when vehicles in the left lane are going five miles per hour slower than traffic, an accident is more likely to occur than when a driver goes five miles per hour faster than traffic."

Meme - "This guy didn't win an Oscar until he was 70- years-old and had starred in 38 movies. Never stop following your dreams. *Godzilla*"

Meme - "massive rat found in Johannesburg residence!!"
Ashley K. @AshleyKSmalls: "Let him go. He has 4 turtles at home that need his care"

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "Gregor Mendel actually began his genetic experiments with mice but was told to change his experiments by a local bishop, who thought it was inappropriate that Mendel watched mice have sex."
One Hundred Years of Mouse Genetics: An Intellectual History. I. The Classical Period (1902-1980)

Meme - "Apple users: My phone is gonna die i only have 23% left
Meanwhile Android users: 0%
Yeah, I've got time."

Meme - "I've heard that Nazis absolutely LOVED breathing air. Lyra had best examine why, because it's apparently really important to not be on the same page as Nazis."
Lyra, The Tran Without F...: "Lord of the Rings has been my favorite thing for like 30 years, and when I found out that Nazis love LotR I had to pause and think through what Nazis love about it, because here's the thing: it's really important not to be on the same page as Nazis"
The Nazis hated smoking, so left wingers need to smoke as much as possible

Meme - "Hmmmm... I hear magas don't like fully clothed women."
jessica @ItsMrsRabbitToU: "Heard the magas don't like red lipstick. Had to do my part"
Puerile contrarianism

Meme - Kid: "Jump, Mario!"
Mario: "WA-HOO!"
*tattered couch, broken controller* "Now, get the flag!"
Mario: "You did it!" *cardboard TV screen and woman cranking hand-drawn background*
Kid: "Was that what it was like, dad?!"
"Just like that, buddy" - Dad in ruined city

Meme - 2010: "THE PLANT I'VE WORKED ALL MY LIFE HAS SHUT DOWN AND MY HOME TOWN IS DYING"
"LMAO LEARN TO CODE"
2023: "NOOOOO!! A.I. JUST REPLACED MY PROGRAMMING JOB!!"
"LMAO LEARN TO WELD"

Meme - "The plant I've worked all my life has shut down and my home town is dying"
"Lmao learn to code"
"I spent 4 years getting a useless degree and now I'm thousands of dollars in debt"
"Lmao learn to weld"

Tax Cuts For Whom? Heterogeneous Effects of Income Tax Changes on Growth and Employment - "This paper investigates how tax changes for different income groups affect aggregate economic activity. I construct a measure of who received (or paid for) tax changes in the postwar period using tax return data from NBER's TAXSIM. I aggregate each tax change by income group and state. Variation in the income distribution across U.S. states and federal tax changes generate variation in regional tax shocks that I exploit to test for heterogeneous effects. I find that the positive relationship between tax cuts and employment growth is largely driven by tax cuts for lower-income groups, and that the effect of tax cuts for the top 10% on employment growth is small."

Crémieux on X - "Incredible stat: the 1% of male adoptees with biological parents who had three+ convictions were responsible for 30% of the sample's convictions. Crime is very concentrated."
Genetic Influences in Criminal Convictions: Evidence from an Adoption Cohort
Damn socialisation!

Meme - *Bronze Medal meme*
iPhone 15* USB-C* 48 MP* All Day Battery*
Google, LG, Motorola, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung:"

Meme - "*理发师* 洗5元
箭5元
吹80元"

Meme - "You can gatekeep Or you can be invaded. Not a difficult choice."
"Warcraft, 1995 *brutal orcs*
Warcraft, 2023 *cute orc*
Warhammer 1987 *carnage*
Warhammer 2023 *carnage*"

Meme - Authoritarian Left: "Masculine Men,  Masculine Women"
Authoritarian Right: "Masculine Men,  Effeminate Women"
Libertarian Left: "Effeminate Men,  Masculine Women"
Libertarian Right: "Effeminate Men,  Effeminate Women"

Meme - "Pokemon GO
App
Swiping
Finding Monsters your area
Tinder
App
Swiping
Finding Monste in your area"
Keywords: Finding Monsters in your area

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