V17's recent activity
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Comment on What healthy habit has made a difference for you? in ~health
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Comment on You are being misled about renewable energy technology in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentAFAIK steel mills have been gradually switching to electric arc heating here in Europe. But simultaneously many have been closing down, the business has been moving to Asia due to costs for a long...AFAIK steel mills have been gradually switching to electric arc heating here in Europe. But simultaneously many have been closing down, the business has been moving to Asia due to costs for a long time, and I have no idea about those. It is true that it takes a long time for the whole industry to switch, I'm just saying that it's already happening.
No idea about cement.
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Comment on You are being misled about renewable energy technology in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentThanks! That's good to hear.Something you might be interested to know though, is that a growing percentage of Solar PV panels actually aren't manufactured in China, they're being sourced from countries like Cambodia, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. Of course a lot of the components are originally sourced from China, but there's no reason that can't change.
Thanks! That's good to hear.
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Comment on AntiRender: remove the glossy shine on architectural renderings in ~tech
V17 LinkI love the idea, but it already seems to be broken. That was fast.I love the idea, but it already seems to be broken. That was fast.
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Comment on List animals until failure in ~games
V17 (edited )LinkQuite fun with english as a second language. I got to 90, and yes, I also forgot horse. edit: 148 second try. It helps to imagine settings in which you see various animals, like scenes from a...Quite fun with english as a second language. I got to 90, and yes, I also forgot horse.
edit: 148 second try. It helps to imagine settings in which you see various animals, like scenes from a safari, your last time visiting a zoo etc. Still, there are whole categories of animals, like birds, where I have zero idea what most of them are called in English since our terminology is completely different.
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Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
V17 LinkJust noticed that Tech Ingredients made a video on LRADs around the same time, and while similarly to Benn Jordan the guy is overconfident and has clear gaps in basic acoustics also seen in other...Just noticed that Tech Ingredients made a video on LRADs around the same time, and while similarly to Benn Jordan the guy is overconfident and has clear gaps in basic acoustics also seen in other videos, he does show a DIY device similar to an actual LRAD and how to protect from it.
Two serious flaws in the video:
- The earplugs were likely improperly inserted. Earplugs generally work better than over the ear protection, especially when it's cheap, but fit matters a lot (with both actually, headphones are going to fit worse over long hair for example). With neither headphones nor earplugs is the attenuation linear - different frequency bands are attenuated by wildly different amounts, so it is possible that earplugs truly are worse for this frequency band, but I believe the difference shown is too large to be real with proper fit and insertion.
- Showing the riot shield and face shield is excellent, but he completely omits explaining a feature of acoustics that is very important to understanding them: to work properly, physical obstacles have to be larger than the sound's wavelength, in both axes. LRADs generally produce high frequencies, but based on the technology used I expect they could go as low as 500 Hz, though not as loud, which is almost 70 cm. I would aim at 1000 Hz as a realistic goal, and use a shield that's at least 40 cm wide to be sure, which the riot shield in the video probably was. Whereas the face shield is simply too small to make a useful difference.
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Comment on You are being misled about renewable energy technology in ~enviro
V17 LinkSince the video is this long, I have to ask: does he talk about the issue with the fact that pretty much all solar panels are made in China? (are they still? is there any movement to change that?)...Since the video is this long, I have to ask: does he talk about the issue with the fact that pretty much all solar panels are made in China? (are they still? is there any movement to change that?)
In the recent years it's become clear that unfortunately we may be getting back into an era of global scale conflicts. The west is way too dependent on China in many areas, but specifically energy infrastructure is possibly the most important one of them all. It's necessary for literally everything else.
I'm not convinced that we should avoid solar because of this, but surely it has to be part of the decision process. As much as I hate coal (I was born in a region devastated by coal mining), I think that from the point of view of energetic security phasing it out so aggressively here in the EU as one of the only truly independent source of energy is extremely short sighted.
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Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
V17 Link ParentIn the text Minori cites the LRAD was used as a louder, better quality megaphone. That kind of use is much quieter than the maximum output for tones/alarms ("deterrent setting") and indeed should...In the text Minori cites the LRAD was used as a louder, better quality megaphone. That kind of use is much quieter than the maximum output for tones/alarms ("deterrent setting") and indeed should not cause hearing damage unless you're standing close to it. And hearing damage is certainly not intended there. I don't think the comparison to a concert is a great one for the same reason, but LRAD use on the loud "deterrent setting" and use as a megaphone are two different things.
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Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
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Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
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Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself.
Note: I couldn't decide whether to post this to society or to health, in the end I think it's more important that people interested in the protests see it, but feel free to move this. I have not...
Note: I couldn't decide whether to post this to society or to health, in the end I think it's more important that people interested in the protests see it, but feel free to move this.
I have not seen an LRAD from up close, I'm going from what is available online and my knowledge of acoustics. There's a lot of misinformation floating around that could be dangerous for protestors, so I'm trying to clear up the worst of it.
What are LRADs/sound cannons?
LRADs are incredibly loud highly directional loudspeakers capable of reproducing medium to high frequencies. They can be used for communication, but they can also be used for playing tones or alarms at volumes so high that it completely paralyzes a person even with ears covered or earplugs inserted. This mode can easily cause immediate permanent hearing damage.
This is what they look like (sorry for daily mail link, but it's a decent current article)
The police in Minneapolis did not use it as a weapon yet afaik, they only used it to amplify voice and threaten to actually use it, so hopefully there was no harm done unless someone was standing close to it. However I think that in current political climate we have to assume that this can change at any time.
Benn Jordan's video on LRADs is wrong
I have seen links to a video by Benn Jordan on LRADs posted again in various places. Ignore this video and warn anybody who posts it as it's completely wrong and you are going to get hearing damage if you listen to it. Benn Jordan did not do his research and is shockingly lacking some fundaments of acoustics, I could write a whole post on that, but let's focus on the most imporant thing:
The video is about ultrasonic modulation speakers, whereas afaik all of the common LRADs are "just" incredibly loud normal loudspeakers. Here's a teardown that makes it obvious, some evidence can be found on the manufacturer's website as well.
Which means that most of what he says in the video simply does not apply. Most importantly, a piece of stiff glossy paper or plastic foamboard, which people on reddit or youtube keep posting about, will not help at all, it will do nothing, and if you ever try to rely on it, you're going to get hearing damage!
What does help?
The only thing that truly does help is always keeping your distance from an LRAD and/or at least standing far enough from the angle in which it produces maximum volume, which is about 15°. I believe a relatively safe distance without any hearing protection would be about 200 meters (about 650 feet) for the loudest models, but even then it just gives you time to GTFO.
If you need to be closer, wear earplugs. Soft foam earplugs cost almost nothing and may prevent hearing damage (but not if you're close and the LRAD is used at maximum volume). Something like this will provide more isolation. If you expect to be close to an LRAD, wearing large over the ear protection, as strong as you can get, with earplugs underneath is a good idea. Even that won't shield you from 150+ dB, so do not ever get too close.
A stiff, large and heavy shield will help. There's a link at the bottom with more information. However this only shields direct sound, and sound reflects off things, so if you're near a wall, or in a narrow street, you may still get dangerous volume levels just from reflected sound. I think it's usually safer to stay mobile than to carry around a heavy shield.
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Comment on Iran’s supreme leader signals harsher crackdown as protest movement swells in ~society
V17 Link ParentThanks a lot for your information! Yeah, that was based on information that was available at that point.Thanks a lot for your information! Yeah, that was based on information that was available at that point.
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Comment on Hunger signals messed up in ~health.mental
V17 LinkI also get suppressed appetite when stressed. My question is: are you still eating the same portions? In other words, is truly the issue a lack of hunger signals, or is it that you feel full much...I also get suppressed appetite when stressed. My question is: are you still eating the same portions? In other words, is truly the issue a lack of hunger signals, or is it that you feel full much quicker than before?
The reason why I'm asking is that for me when I stress-starved myself in the past for an extended period of time (weeks?), the issue was that my stomach significantly suppressed its natural peristaltics (seen on endoscopy), and as a result I felt full quickly and when I attempted to eat normal portions of food I quickly became nauseous. But when I didn't eat, I regularly became nauseous as well, likely from the stomach acid produced on an empty stomach. Herbal teas for aiding digestion seemed to make the second issue worse while not helping the fist issue.
The solution from the gastroenterologist was to force myself to eat regularly until the stomach starts moving normally again. This was really difficult and I failed until I got a tip from a different doctor who was into alternative medicine (a red flag, but this thing in particular worked): he told me to only drink warm fluids, even if it's just warm water with a bit of lemon juice for taste (I usually used diluted fruit syrups warmed in the microwave), no cold or room temperature drinks whatsoever, do not eat raw vegetables, only cooked, and avoid dairy. I assume that the first thing was the most important and afaik is backed by some evidence, but I decided to do the latter two as well just in case, so I cannot say for sure. I felt a difference in a week and within two weeks I was able to eat mostly normally.
Good luck in any case, and a visit to a gastroenterologist seems warranted. Endoscopy is not that bad.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 Link ParentHonestly that's valid. What I intended to say by that is that I acknowledge that it is clearly a jab and not neutral commentary, but I think it's a jab at attittude, not at a diagnosis or people...You described it as "mildly offensive observations." I don't think it makes sense to be like "no not like that, it's mildly offensive in another direction"
Honestly that's valid. What I intended to say by that is that I acknowledge that it is clearly a jab and not neutral commentary, but I think it's a jab at attittude, not at a diagnosis or people with the diagnosis in general. And I think that things can be stated in a somewhat offensive way but still be mostly accurate.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 Link Parentcopying what I say above: I don't interpret it that way, I see it as a criticism of "2010s tumblr"-like focus on the diagnosis as the most important thing in one's personality, which doesn't seem...What a brave take; a doctor dismissing people with literal mental illnesses. Bravo. I can't wait to never read any of his other material.
copying what I say above: I don't interpret it that way, I see it as a criticism of "2010s tumblr"-like focus on the diagnosis as the most important thing in one's personality, which doesn't seem healthy.
Btw here's a piece by the NYT on the man, doxing him, to provide more context into the enviously large, genetically superior brain behind these works.
Of all the reasons to hate him I think this is one of the worse ones and recommend looking up and reading the subject's response together with it, it gives reasonable explanations why some parts of the article are just badly written/wrong.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 Link ParentI don't interpret it that way, I see it as a criticism of "2010s tumblr"-like focus on the diagnosis as the most important thing in one's personality, which doesn't seem healthy.I don't interpret it that way, I see it as a criticism of "2010s tumblr"-like focus on the diagnosis as the most important thing in one's personality, which doesn't seem healthy.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 (edited )Link ParentI don't think that's a fair observation. edit: more specifically, I don't think it's any more correct that saying "oh, this is one of the people who freak out any time a link to ACX is posted on...I don't think that's a fair observation.
edit: more specifically, I don't think it's any more correct that saying "oh, this is one of the people who freak out any time a link to ACX is posted on tildes" on some of the other commenters.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 Link ParentI just want to point out that this, and its consequences, is exactly what the article that this linked article is responding to is all about. It goes deeper, shows examples of his opinions from...I just want to point out that this, and its consequences, is exactly what the article that this linked article is responding to is all about. It goes deeper, shows examples of his opinions from non-Dilbert sources, his personal development, and also has some funny or accurate jabs at him or at nerds as a whole (the author also being one and, like all of us, having to go through the conflict of realizing early on that we're not as capable as we thought as teenagers).
I enjoy mildly offensive observations, so I liked this passage in particular, but the rest of the article is otherwise quite kind and empathetic:
Every nerd who was the smartest kid in their high school goes to an appropriately-ranked college and realizes they’re nothing special. But also, once they go into some specific field they find that intellect, as versatile as it is, can only take them so far. And for someone who was told their whole childhood that they were going to cure cancer (alas, a real quote from my elementary school teacher), it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Reaction formation, where you replace a unbearable feeling with its exact opposite, is one of the all time great Freudian defense mechanisms. You may remember it from such classics as “rape victims fall in love with their rapist” or “secretly gay people become really homophobic”. So some percent of washed-up gifted kids compensate by really, really hating nerdiness, rationality, and the intellect.
The variety of self-hating nerd are too many to number. There are the nerds who go into psychology to prove that EQ is a real thing and IQ merely its pale pathetic shadow. There are the nerds who become super-woke and talk about how reason and objectivity are forms of white supremacy culture. There are the nerds who obsess over “embodiment” and “somatic therapy” and accuse everyone else of “living in their heads”. There are the nerds who deflect by becoming really into neurodiversity - “the interesting thing about my brain isn’t that I’m ‘smart’ or ‘rational’, it’s that I’m ADHDtistic, which is actually a weakness . . . but also secretly a strength!” There are the nerds who flirt with fascism because it idolizes men of action, and the nerds who convert to Christianity because it idolizes men of faith. There are the nerds who get really into Seeing Like A State, and how being into rationality and metrics and numbers is soooooo High Modernist, but as a Kegan Level Five Avatar they are far beyond such petty concerns. There are the nerds who redefine “nerd” as “person who likes Marvel movies” - having successfully gerrymandered themselves outside the category, they can go back to their impeccably-accurate statisticsblogging on educational outcomes, or their deep dives into anthropology and medieval mysticism, all while casting about them imprecations that of course nerds are loathsome scum who deserve to be bullied.
(maybe it’s unfair to attribute this to self-hatred per se. [...] )
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
V17 LinkWhat a coincidence, I just finished reading The Dilbert Afterlife by Scott Alexander, which this article reacts to, and I want to recommend it, I think it's brilliant. It talks about the pitfalls...What a coincidence, I just finished reading The Dilbert Afterlife by Scott Alexander, which this article reacts to, and I want to recommend it, I think it's brilliant. It talks about the pitfalls of being a clever but onesided nerd, about the cultural context of early 00s nerdom and how it developed, and also talks about ridiculous non-Dilbert books that Scott Adams wrote, among other things.
Scott Adams felt the contradictions of nerd-dom more acutely than most. As compensation, he was gifted with two great defense mechanisms. The first was humor (which Freud grouped among the mature, adaptive defenses), aided by its handmaiden self-awareness. The second (from Freud’s “neurotic” category) was his own particular variety of reaction formation, “I’m better than those other nerds because, while they foolishly worship rationality and the intellect, I’ve gotten past it to the real deal, marketing / manipulation / persuasion / hypnosis.”
When he was young, and his mind supple, he was able to balance both these mechanisms; the steam of their dissonance drove the turbine of his art. As he grew older, the first one - especially the self-awareness - started to fail, and he leaned increasingly heavily on the second. Forced to bear the entire weight of his wounded psyche, it started showing more and more cracks, until eventually he ended up as a podcaster - the surest sign of a deranged mind.
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Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
V17 LinkToday on a walk a randomly remembered two stories to share, hopefully bumping this thread won't be too annoying. Seems better than opening a new one. Both stories relate to #metoo and the changes...Today on a walk a randomly remembered two stories to share, hopefully bumping this thread won't be too annoying. Seems better than opening a new one. Both stories relate to #metoo and the changes it caused. I do not intend to judge #metoo as a whole.
First is a story from a soundguy, and it's not exactly terrible, it just shows the limits and side effects of the approach to workplace sexual harrassment.
One of the things you have to regularly do in theater or TV production is install microports on people (possibly has a different name in english) - those tiny microphones that are placed either somewhere around the actor's face or nearby on clothes. This involves very carefully running and taping a small wire around their body to the transmitter somewhere around their waist so that it stays put, doesn't snag on anything etc., and it obviously has to be done under clothes. So it usually involves touching people in their underwear, sometimes in uncomfortable places, and being quite close to them.
Pervs exist in all walks of life so naturally there are sound guys who either seemed like they possibly enjoyed touching women during this process a bit more than appropriate, or were just clearly over the line. This was not common, but even just one person working a TV production gets ample opportunities to grope people regularly.
#metoo empowered people to complain and generally created an atmosphere of fear of being inappropriate. While it's difficult to judge and there's no clear data, it definitely seemed like it improved the situation with pervs who want to grope women. However. Some portion of people is always going to be stupid, ignorant or malicious. This applies to potential victims or ex-victims as well. And unfortunately installing microports really does require getting up close and touching people in their underwear in uncomfortable places even when done completely professionaly. So false accusations of inappropriate touching from people who do not understand or do not want to understand the dificulty of this job also spiked, some actresses were known to complain regularly even when everything was done as carefully as possible, so sound guys talked among themselves and tried to avoid them etc.
Miscommunications or screw ups happen in every field, but with accusations of sexual harrassment the stakes shot up sky high. As a result a number of experienced guys, who almost certainly never behaved inappropriately but either received a false accusation scare themselves or saw one happen to their colleagues, understandably decided that it's just not worth it risking their career and name over this and since then only work jobs that do not require them to do this at all, to anybody. Which leaves the job to less exprienced guys or guys who don't care.
The second one is actually kind of similar, but more personal. A teacher from Academy of Arts, theatre faculty, was accused of being inappropriate with his female students, repeatedly touching them in sexual ways. The problem here is that he's a teacher of acrobatics.
I only met him briefly, his wife a couple times more, but we have various friends in common and as far as I can judge based on everything I know, I am 95% sure he's innocent. His reaction was, paraphrasing, "But I teach acrobatics! I have to touch them! They can die if I don't!".
I tried to find the newspaper article that mentioned him being accused, which I read when it happened a few years ago, and couldn't. It's quite possible it was pulled, I don't think a formal accusation happened, certainly not a lawsuit towards him, and he's not at all the kind of person who would file a lawsuit against the accusers. However the result is that he's not teaching anymore. He had somewhere around 5 years until possible retirement and his career ended with being falsely accused and rather leaving to not have to deal with the fallout, rebuild trust with students who can break their neck if they don't trust him etc. This is an incredibly kind person who spent his life so far as a performer bringing joy mostly to little kids, and while teaching was just one part of that, it's a sad, sour ending.
I know what you say is true for many people, but I want to add: this is an individual thing, if you're someone who has tried this and it didn't help any, you're not doing anything wrong, that's just what it is.
Many people are just fine with drinking only when they start feeling thirsty or with a meal and eating a common amount of salt.
I am chronically ill and for my very mild heart problems two different doctors recommended that I drank more water, so I pushed myself. It had zero positive effects on me and years later, when I started having issues with very mild malabsorption of minerals (which is not common, but not rare either - it can happen due to microbiome issues, which can be triggered by covid, a round of antibiotics, chronic stress...), specifically magnesium and potassium, it actually made things worse. After I started drinking only when I felt like it, I started feeling better and stopped peeing all the time.
Drinking primarily water instead of any flavored drinks is definitely a good idea though.