TemulentTeatotaler's recent activity
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of June 23 in ~society
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Comment on Democratic lawmaker killed and another wounded in Minnesota in apparently ‘politically motivated’ attacks in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentStochastic terrorism works like global warming. You can't say that any particular storm was due to increasing temperature, but it's expected that extreme weather events will increase.Stochastic terrorism works like global warming. You can't say that any particular storm was due to increasing temperature, but it's expected that extreme weather events will increase.
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Comment on Necessities are expensive, luxuries are cheap in ~finance
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentMen's enrollment relative to women has trended down, but completion and enrollment in college has trended upwards for men. ~25% of men and women had a bachelors in 1995, but in 2024 that was 37%...Men's enrollment relative to women has trended down, but completion and enrollment in college has trended upwards for men. ~25% of men and women had a bachelors in 1995, but in 2024 that was 37% of men and 47% of women.
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Comment on Baking edgeless brownies from the inside out in ~food
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )Link ParentIf your pan can't imprison a half-bull monument to your hubris I don't think you're serious about making quality brownies.- Exemplary
If your pan can't imprison a half-bull monument to your hubris I don't think you're serious about making quality brownies.
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Comment on Interview with Marc Andreessen on Silicon Valley and politics in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI'd call it fanfic, but it's clearly used as a diminuitive there. If you don't want to invoke images of amateur "highschool dropout" writers borrowing existing properties--often primarily for...I'd call it fanfic, but it's clearly used as a diminuitive there. If you don't want to invoke images of amateur "highschool dropout" writers borrowing existing properties--often primarily for self-gratification or shipping purposes-- there are plenty of ways of avoiding that..
You might call Atwood's The Penelopiad fanfic, or Wide Sargasso Sea fanfic of Jane Eyre but calling them literary retellings feels more respectul or accurate. Ecclesiastes is fanfic in the Christverse but wisdom literature better explains it.
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Comment on According to online poll, calls for genocide have migrated from the margins to the mainstream in Israel in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentThe poll appears to be conducted on behalf of Penn State's Tamir Sorek by an Israeli polling firm, Geocartography: I haven't looked any further than that, but it is always worth being cautious...The poll appears to be conducted on behalf of Penn State's Tamir Sorek by an Israeli polling firm, Geocartography:
a recent poll I commissioned through the Israeli polling firm Geocartography.
In the representative sample of Jewish Israelis who were polled from March 10-11, 2025, 82% supported the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population to other countries, while 56% endorsed the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. By comparison, according to a 2003 poll, only 46% supported the “transfer of Palestinian residents of the occupied territories,” and just 31% supported the “transfer of Israel’s Arab citizens.”
I haven't looked any further than that, but it is always worth being cautious about polls. One that comes to mind was YouGov finding shocking levels of holocaust denialism in the youth:
20% of people under 30 strongly agree or tend to agree that the Holocaust it is a myth, compared to fewer than 1% of people 65 and older.
...which was followed by Pew pointing out online opt-in polls can be trash, and that no such trend existed in their ATP.
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Comment on China’s superstition boom in ~life
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )Link ParentAt least for religion the Taiping rebellion seems like relevant context, though it's hard for me to appreciate how much something like 20-30 million dying under a rebellion of a syncretic brother...At least for religion the Taiping rebellion seems like relevant context, though it's hard for me to appreciate how much something like 20-30 million dying under a rebellion of a syncretic brother of Christ lingers in a cultural consciousness after a century or so.
If I remember right, the CCP did clamp down on things like Confucianism but they've since leaned into it. They clamped down on I Ching, feng shui, and religions, but promoted a variety of superstitious/pseudoscientific Traditional Chinese Medicine claims.
An example that comes to mind of top-down superstition is the Beijing Olympics starting at 8:08:08 p.m. on 8/8/2008, for the lucky "8" theme (or maybe they're just big 808 fans?).
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Comment on Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., COVID shots will only be available to people 65+, high-risk groups in the US in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler LinkHere's a link if anyone wants to leave a comment on the changes, ending in 2 days.- Exemplary
Here's a link if anyone wants to leave a comment on the changes, ending in 2 days.
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Comment on We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. in ~tech
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI'm not very informed, but I was under the impression a lot of the reactor designs (like China's thorium / molten salt reactor) were pretty resistant to things going wrong. Not that they shouldn't...I'm not very informed, but I was under the impression a lot of the reactor designs (like China's thorium / molten salt reactor) were pretty resistant to things going wrong. Not that they shouldn't also have a lot of oversight.
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Comment on What historic unsolved mysteries do you want solved? in ~talk
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )LinkSpring-heeled Jack. There are many rumors and legends, but the one thing people can't deny is his vertical. Possibly explained in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Gaiden. The story behind various...Spring-heeled Jack. There are many rumors and legends, but the one thing people can't deny is his vertical. Possibly explained in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Gaiden.
The story behind various dancing manias.
The circumstances of different initial zoonotic spillover events, and whether we gave human pox to anything?
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Comment on US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to slash senior-most ranks of military in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentNot sure whether this or replacing JAGs who might be roadblocks was worse.Not sure whether this or replacing JAGs who might be roadblocks was worse.
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Comment on United Auto Workers statement: In a victory for autoworkers, auto tariffs mark the beginning of the end of NAFTA and the “free trade” disaster in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentTo add some numbers, the rate of suicide in the U.S. per 100k is ~19 for 25-64 year olds, and 13.5 for 15-24 year olds. China went from a high rate of ~23.2 in 1990-1995 to a present? 9.17. At the...To add some numbers, the rate of suicide in the U.S. per 100k is ~19 for 25-64 year olds, and 13.5 for 15-24 year olds.
China went from a high rate of ~23.2 in 1990-1995 to a present? 9.17.
At the height of the suicides in Foxconn (2010) there were 15 reported with 930k workers, giving ~1.61/100k, which may be skewed by information I'm missing, but probably not enough to make up for the 10x rate the US has.
Suicide has components of hopelessness, means, and isolation that you aren't going to usually get in a factory town. You can be miserable or mistreated and not suicidal. The "no-suicide pledge", nets, or "I <3 Foxconn" shirts and severity of the act made it the hot topic but the suicide rate was relatively low.
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Comment on NaNoWriMo officially shutting down in ~creative
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentLooks like a municipal liason?Looks like a municipal liason?
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Comment on Liberal projected to win Wisconsin Supreme Court race in blow to Donald Trump in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentHere's the ACLU fact sheet on it from 2021. I think there's also been a few GOP members who've openly said the laws were about suppressing votes. Even if photo ID requirements aren't onerous I...Here's the ACLU fact sheet on it from 2021. I think there's also been a few GOP members who've openly said the laws were about suppressing votes.
Even if photo ID requirements aren't onerous I think it's important to keep the discussion about making elections secure, easy, and affordable, instead of playing defense for some hypothetical less "together" or invested voter. If voter ID laws fix a non-problem and they make elections slower and more expensive why do it?
It can be hard to defend the person who let their license lapse or who'd drop off a ballot but wouldn't spend the 1/2/etc. hours in line I'm happy to... it's their civic duty, afterall! Yet we know a 1-click-to-buy patent made Amazon billions, and many voters are lazy, disenfranchised, barely literate, or all sorts of other "personal failings" that can be used to suppress votes, without the sympathy invoked by the homebound or homeless. Voter ID laws should be required to justify themselves, not "lazy" voters.
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Comment on Octopus with a shell in ~enviro
TemulentTeatotaler LinkCool stuff! The dimorphism sounds like what you get with the anglerfish, where the males are about an inch and their lifecycle is basically finding a female (which grow up to a few feet), biting...Cool stuff! The dimorphism sounds like what you get with the anglerfish, where the males are about an inch and their lifecycle is basically finding a female (which grow up to a few feet), biting them, then dissolving into a pair of testes for later use.
European eels have been a bit of a mystery, too. They go through 5 stages of development:
- Hatch in the Sargasso Sea.
- Larvae drift thousands of miles with ocean currents for months or years.
- Transform into glass eels and migrate into freshwater
- Grow into adult yellow eels over ~5-20 years in rivers and lakes
- Their guts dissolve and they develop sex organs, traveling ~6000km over ~150 days across the ocean to the Sargasso sea with stored food.
Then they reproduce, but the specifics still haven't been figured out (afaik).
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Comment on John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein to write Monopoly movie in ~movies
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI've heard the D&D movie did a great job of capturing the player experience, but my player experience with Monopoly has been broken families, shady banking, and flipped tables. With one exception...I've heard the D&D movie did a great job of capturing the player experience, but my player experience with Monopoly has been broken families, shady banking, and flipped tables.
With one exception during college when there was a blackout. What started as 8 players got down to two, with the rest ceding their properties to make the game close. A couple retired players moved into supporting roles as accountants and piecepushers so the players could focus on speed play. The rest became hype men you'd find in an alleyway craps game or Wolf of Wallstreet. Rounds were taking seconds, only slowed by celebratory pantomiming of caviar and champagne consumption after a hot streek. Somehow a monocle, a scarf with $$ embroidered along its length, and other appropriate apparel was manifested?
They should go with the broken families and preferably stop the movie mid-play to be accurate though, otherwise the oldschool ttrpg fans are going to complain about inauthenticity.
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Comment on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Texas measles outbreak is call to action for all of us. MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease. in ~health
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentFor sure, it's better than the alternative!For sure, it's better than the alternative!
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Comment on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Texas measles outbreak is call to action for all of us. MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease. in ~health
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentA common pattern for indefensible people is that they have a concession on some extreme position which attracts a lot of attention because its unexpected. Then it gets held up for years as an...A common pattern for indefensible people is that they have a concession on some extreme position which attracts a lot of attention because its unexpected. Then it gets held up for years as an example of them being reasonable. "If Trump is soft on Russia why did he sanction them?" -- after threatening to veto until it became veto proof.
And I don't mean to be a hater--you're one of my favorite people on the site-- but I don't know how to fix this pattern outside of pointing out the extreme inconsistencies with his behavior that pretty much always mean this is not him having a change of heart. It's crisis management.
With measles the agenda he's peddled for the past couple decades is coming home to roost and it's not a great look. Serving as the EP on a film for Wakefield and saying, "Andy Wakefield stands among the most unjustly vilified figures of modern history..." who was the victim of a global smear campaign?
You don't lie under oath a couple months back about related stuff and suddenly start going with the scientific consensus. Instead the guy that uses a brain worm as an excuse to pay less to an ex-wife after cheating with at least 37 women is putting on a veneer of professionalism. For now. As much as he has to.
He isn't letting his personal beliefs get in the way of doing his job as Secretary of HHS.
At best he is fundamentally not qualified for the job he has. You can't resolve not having the skillset with accepting the position. If I accepted a position as a pilot because I've watched a bird or two I'd be letting my beliefs [that I'm qualified] get in the way of my job, even if a co-pilot can handle a rough landing.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump cuts short talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Oval Office blow up in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )Link ParentUnfortunately it's the toupee fallacy to think it is obvious-- you notice the bad ones. Better usernames are trivial and AI is already at a point it is often preferred to student's writings in...Unfortunately it's the toupee fallacy to think it is obvious-- you notice the bad ones.
Better usernames are trivial and AI is already at a point it is often preferred to student's writings in colleges. When that fails, on the cheap you can get a Floridian to put on a stunt with a cage and Hillary in a prison uniform, or Tim Pool and other influencers to push a foreign agenda.
We're all susceptible, and by far the thing the makes us vulnerable to misinformation (recent meta-analysis) is whether we've seen a claim before.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump cuts short talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Oval Office blow up in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler LinkZelensky statement after leaving: Russian state media was present at the Oval Office, removed:Zelensky statement after leaving:
Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.
Russian state media was present at the Oval Office, removed:
A correspondent for TASS, a Russian state media organization, was among a group of hand-picked pool reporters present in the Oval Office...
The apparent gaffe comes three days after the White House announced it would wrest the choice of pool reporters from the White House Correspondents’ Association, breaking with decades of precedent.
Some places don't let you, ala sore loser laws.
New York and Conneticut are apparently the only two places that currently don't prevent this: