longroadstonowhere

[longroadstonowhere]

I'm not sure I buy all of the narrative about ChatGPT breaking people's handle on reality. Don't get me wrong, the tech is bad, but after reading a NYT case study I kept thinking, is guys thinking they could be Tony Stark if they hit it lucky with one Great Idea really new?

new blog post on patreon

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The Legend of Vox Machina is a deeply philosophical show that asks important questions such as: “what if the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov had a gun?”

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girlies that are the same

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This was news from thee newscast here (Tagesschau) so the article is only in German but here my favourite parts:

- for a long time the only reason they knew the worm existed were the traces it left on the corals it ate, no one ever saw it

- until one day they found a one point five metre long part of the worm that was still wiggling

- only the part was missing the head, and the corals continued to be eaten, so apparently the worm just got rid of its bum and continued on like normal

- DNA tests of the bum could not determine its species, only that it is in some way related to the bobbit worm (also called eunice aphroditois), so this might be an entirely new species

- the worm is called 'Phantom'

- they installed cameras for four days, but didn't manage to capture the worm, after removing the cameras the worm continued eating the corals - right where the cameras had been

- the guy who positioned the camera said to that 'Lots of material, sadly extremly little worm, as in neither a long nor the short worm. We haven't seen anything.'

- now they have installed a camera again and a popular german news channel is streaming the whole night so that everyone can search for Phantom:

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stories that are deconstructions of the traditional fairytale & in which a central conflict is the romanticization of the idea of a certain kind of princess being rescued by a certain kind of prince but the ‘princess’ character harbors a dark secret that makes her believe herself to be unlovable if known and consequent internal guilt of being a sham princess and the ‘prince’ character does not fulfill the traditional image of a prince in a widely societally perceived way that causes them to struggle with internal guilt of being a sham prince 

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According to Know Your Meme, on August 18th, 2005, Erwin Beekveld brought forth this work into the world. HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.

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learning that constantly thinking about and analyzing and interpreting my traumas isn’t actually healing . and don’t get me wrong its made me a very effective communicator and emotionally intelligent person. but actually im supposed to be moving on and experiencing new things and happiness and stuff and not just compulsively reliving and recontextualizing the past. oops!

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Ayda and Adaine hit the hallmarks!

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Obviously Nate's father-figure-ness to Hacker/Hitter/Thief is subconscious and rightly so because they're all adults and have adult relationships as well, but I do think that Nate's previous experience as a father does affect how he interacts with his kinda-kids-adult-coworker-family.

For Eliot, obviously, Eliot is Nate's mirror. Eliot is the metaphorical violent foster kid who has a connection with Nate's grizzled mentor persona. They get each other, they understand each other, they're just two fucked up kids from outwardly normal and interiorly fucked up families. They're not parent and child and they never will be, they're too similar for that. They can side-eye each other's references and be a little "girl, what were you doing at the devil's sacrament" with each other's thoughts and they just click.

Nate is a lot more of an active mentor and guide and, yes, father figure to Parker. He defends her ability to be part of a family to Archie so strongly that the old man completely revised his own views. He pushes her to the same level of excellence that Archie did, but for different motives and also provides her with a support system and a soft place to fall.

But for Hardison, Nate's fatherly moments come across far more harshly than with Eliot or Parker. He still feels intense respect for the young man and his skills, but those emotions are more frequently expressed towards other characters and even antagonists than to Hardison himself. It almost feels like Nate is subconsciously uncomfortable with feeling positive mentorly or fatherly feelings towards Hardison.

I'd like to offer the suggestion that Nate is uncomfortable being fatherly with Hardison because Hardison is exactly the son Nate would have wanted Sam to grow up to be.

On a purely physical level, Hardison is the youngest and a male (and mentally has way less baggage to unpack than either Eliot or Parker, making him act more childish on occasion and far lighter than the rest of their little family.) All these things Nate would subconsciously respond to with a distant ping of being reminded of Sam, especially in his grieving state.

But Hardison is also principled, and clever like nothing on earth, and a fantastically hard worker, and sarcastic and funny into the bargain. All things that sound like... Nate. And like Maggie. And as the child doesn't fall far from the parents most times, we can assume Sam would be as well. So by working with Hardison, Nate is almost forced to face that Sam wouldn't have stayed his ten-year-old self for very long. As Nate says in the Cross My Heart Job, he would have eventually become a teenager, and then a young man. And he would have driven Nate up the wall, and probably have inherited all of Nate's "trouble with authority" genes, and maybe, who knows, been good with computers. Much like another young man, a 24 year old genius with a problem with authority and a smartphone.

Nate never stood a chance.

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We live in the dumbest, lamest cyberpunk dystopia possible.

So LA has been — and continues to — protest against ICE. These protests haven’t gotten any smaller or lost any momentum, but social media wasn’t reflecting it.

TikTok users, realizing that the platform/other social media are censoring/deleting/shadowbanning these protest videos, decided to find a workaround.

They’re calling it the LA Music Festival. Ice detention centers and other protest locations are “stages.” The hottest band is Rage Against the Machine. “Here’s what gear you should be bringing to stay safe at the LA Music Festival.”

And it fucking worked.

TikTok has become a proving ground for a lot of new music, meaning lots of labels and organizations have lucrative deals with TikTok to promote their new artists and music festivals. So they absolutely cannot censor the words “music festival” or train the algorithm to ignore it, or they risk endangering that very important revenue.

So now protest videos are flooding feeds again, but it’s the LA 24/7 Music Festival. Truly an incredible timeline we’ve landed in.

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What was your obscure chatroom/forum that you used before social media? Don’t say Gaia Online or Club Penguin. I’m talking obscure.

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season 1 vs. season 7

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#the second most important thing is the funyarinpa (via @lumeninfusco)

the singular most important thing to know about the zero escape series is there is a strong as fuck ice mummy

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Put a / in the year you were born, so we will have an average age

Before 1990: //////

1990:////

1991://////

1992:////////////

1993://///////////////

1994:////////////////////

1995: //////////////////////////////////////

1996: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1997: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1998: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1999: ///////////////////

2000: //

After 2000: /

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mom i can't go to school today, it's everytime we touch day

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this was the only way to guarantee your kid grew up indie