balooga's recent activity
-
Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shoots and kills a woman during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown in ~society
-
Comment on Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage at a cybersecurity conference while dressed as the pink Power Ranger in ~tech
balooga Link ParentHa, I'm just joking with you. Like I said, this topic should be totally kosher anyway, assuming people comment responsibly.Ha, I'm just joking with you. Like I said, this topic should be totally kosher anyway, assuming people comment responsibly.
-
Comment on Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage at a cybersecurity conference while dressed as the pink Power Ranger in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI was deliberate not to summon his gaze. You brought it on yourself!!I was deliberate not to summon his gaze. You brought it on yourself!!
-
Comment on Texas A&M, under new curriculum limits, warns professor not to teach Plato in ~humanities
balooga Link ParentThat's what the far right mean when they use it, because they're trying to imply that people who think that way are "ideologically driven" while people who think like them are not. Transphobic,...That's what the far right mean when they use it, because they're trying to imply that people who think that way are "ideologically driven" while people who think like them are not.
Transphobic, binary gender reductionism is ALSO gender ideology.
-
Comment on Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage at a cybersecurity conference while dressed as the pink Power Ranger in ~tech
balooga LinkA different link about this was previously posted on Tildes, and it was deleted by Deimos (which I believe prompted this conversation about topic moderation on the site). AFAIK there wasn't an...A different link about this was previously posted on Tildes, and it was deleted by Deimos (which I believe prompted this conversation about topic moderation on the site). AFAIK there wasn't an issue with the actual content of the link, it was just shut down due to some problematic interactions in the comments section. Personally I don't have a problem with this being posted again today, but thought it worth mentioning that context, which might lead some to perceive it as an attempt to circumvent moderation. I think as long as people comment respectfully it should be fine. Just be aware this topic has the potential for volatility, as we saw before.
-
Comment on US Border agents shoot, wound two people in Portland in ~society
balooga Link ParentAlso, when the people confronting you outnumber you and are all wearing body armor and holding assault rifles... well good fucking luck. Her fate was sealed the moment they approached. There was...Also, when the people confronting you outnumber you and are all wearing body armor and holding assault rifles... well good fucking luck. Her fate was sealed the moment they approached. There was no choice she could have made to secure a different outcome.
Edit: Ah jeez, this is the thread about Portland, not Minneapolis. Telling that we have not one but two ongoing threads about this shit.
-
Comment on The "why does this movie exist" scene in ~movies
balooga Link ParentOr as the TV edit put it, “I’ve had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!” You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?Or as the TV edit put it, “I’ve had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!”
You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
-
Comment on Toy Story's villain is a lie in ~movies
balooga (edited )Link ParentJust the first movie. Well there are a few small references to the second one as well. Edit: Oh, apologies, it does mention that we briefly see Sid as an adult in Toy Story 3. But his appearance...Just the first movie. Well there are a few small references to the second one as well.
Edit: Oh, apologies, it does mention that we briefly see Sid as an adult in Toy Story 3. But his appearance is more of an easter egg than anything relevant to the plot, so I’m not even using a spoiler tag for it here.
-
Comment on Texas A&M, under new curriculum limits, warns professor not to teach Plato in ~humanities
balooga Link“Down with censorship!” they cried. “Free speech!” they said. “No more cancel culture!” they said. Well, it’s sure a good thing these defenders of liberty are in charge now. What a relief that...“Down with censorship!” they cried. “Free speech!” they said. “No more cancel culture!” they said.
Well, it’s sure a good thing these defenders of liberty are in charge now. What a relief that we’ve finally got principled, consistent, sane leadership to save us from the iron fist of wokeism.
-
Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shoots and kills a woman during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown in ~society
balooga Link ParentThey really do live in their own reality. It’s like some kind of absurd shared hallucination. You can’t reason with an individual that 2 + 2 = 4 anymore because they’ve got a critical mass of...They really do live in their own reality. It’s like some kind of absurd shared hallucination. You can’t reason with an individual that 2 + 2 = 4 anymore because they’ve got a critical mass of friends, family members, pastors, pundits, and influencers all shouting that it isn’t. No one’s willing to break ranks and disagree with the echo chamber — frankly that would take too much energy and critical thought anyway, and just put them on the outs with their tribe anyway, so why bother?
I don’t know how to bring them back to planet earth. I desperately wish there was a way. Plenty of my loved ones are in that cult.
The MAGA narrative is diverging further and further from reality as time goes by. That can’t be sustainable, sooner or later a kid in the crowd is going to ask why the emperor’s naked and the whole illusion will collapse. But how much harm will be wrought in the meantime?
-
Comment on Toy Story's villain is a lie in ~movies
balooga Link ParentThe Potato Heads’ appendages seem like they’re just accessories that can be swapped freely, like a Lego minifig head. Changing from one nose to another doesn’t alter the toy’s identity. We also...The Potato Heads’ appendages seem like they’re just accessories that can be swapped freely, like a Lego minifig head. Changing from one nose to another doesn’t alter the toy’s identity. We also see a tortilla being used instead of the potato, but it’s still Mr. Potato Head. At other times we see him accessing the sight from his eyes at a distance, and speaking through his mouth at a distance. So I’d say his consciousness is evenly distributed among all his parts.
I’m still curious about a few things:
- Mr. Potato Head has multiple parts of each type… can he use all of them simultaneously?
- If Andy buys a Parts ‘n’ Pieces Pack for him, do the new pieces absorb his identity or remain separate?
- What happens if Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head shuffle all their parts together and arrange two spuds containing bits of each of them? I assume each part still belongs to its owner so I guess they’d both be wrestling for control of both bodies.
- What happens if one of Mr. Potato Head’s eyes is destroyed? Does he merely lose that sense organ, or also does that also affect his cognition, memory, sense of self, etc. since his identity is distributed among all his parts? Is each part entirely redundant, allowing him to survive fully intact in a single piece after all the others are destroyed?
If Lego follows the same rules, I guess a kid’s entire Lego collection would be one organism made of hundreds of parts. Each minifig would just be an avatar of it. Not sure what happens when new Lego sets are introduced, maybe they just get assimilated like Borg drones.
I don’t think Mrs. Nesbit was a new personality being put on Buzz. We see other toys change owners in the series and they all retain their identities. I think Mrs. Nesbit was just Buzz having an existential crisis. He had finally accepted that he was not a Space Ranger, and was just a toy, but that realization shattered his world. It broke him. He eventually came to terms with it, but that moment in Sid’s house was his rock bottom crash out.
-
Comment on Toy Story's villain is a lie in ~movies
balooga LinkI wanted to like this but he's really overreaching to make his point. Sid burns a hole in Woody's forehead with a magnifying glass, and plans to incinerate him on a charcoal grill. He isn't...I wanted to like this but he's really overreaching to make his point. Sid burns a hole in Woody's forehead with a magnifying glass, and plans to incinerate him on a charcoal grill. He isn't strapping a rocket on Buzz's back to help him fly, he's strapping an explosive on his back to blow him up. Sid's not the steward of broken toys, he's the one who breaks them in the first place. It takes a very selective reading of the movie to come to any other conclusion.
Poggy's saying that Sid's room is a makerspace where his toys are learning valuable field medicine techniques. It's not. He takes a brand-new alien toy from Pizza Planet and immediately hands it over to the dog to chew on. It's lovely that Sally and Pterodactyl got their heads and bodies reunited, but it was Sid who separated them to begin with. You can't paint him as a creative life-giver when he clearly gets his kicks from mutilating his wards.
It's true that his toys banded together in solidarity. They're all united in their victimhood. But they don't view Sid as a benefactor — they obviously hate him as much as Woody does, as evidenced by their participation in the uprising. Also I should point out that many of them are grotesque amalgamations of multiple toys. Toy Story has always played fast and loose with questions about toy consciousness, but I'd wager that if you combine the head of one with the body of another, at least one of the original toys is either annihilated or in endless agony. Babyface, Ducky, Legs, and the rest of the mutants all appear to be individuals. So what happened to their constituent identities? Sid is stitching dead bodies together like Dr. Frankenstein.
As for Andy's room and the argument that it represents a worldview of toys only existing as objects for the pleasure of their owners... well, yeah. That's the
humantoy condition. If the freeze reflex is an unavoidable fact of their existence, so is the fact that they were literally created for the purpose of being child's playthings. I mean, that's grim for sentient characters but you can only fight your reality so much. If the toys are looking to find meaning in life, there's no point in searching outside of the parameters that constrain them.Woody and his friends do find fulfillment through playtime with their owners, and that seems pretty close to self-actualization for beings in their predicament. Over the series, we see a few views of alternative existences for toys: Gathering dust (perhaps still in original packaging!) in a collection in Toy Story 2, being abused by swarming preschoolers in Toy Story 3, and of course being tortured by a psychopath in the first film. None of those are any more appealing than playing with Andy. Maybe Bo Peep's onto something in Toy Story 4, a life of freedom and self-reliance sounds appealing. I can see why Woody went with her. But it's also lonely, and perilous. It's a big world out there and toys are fragile. They're always one freeze reflex away from an encounter with a human who's more likely to toss them in the trash than give them another loving home. Maybe that's why (we can see from the trailer) Woody comes back to rejoin the gang in Toy Story 5.
By comparison to those other options, at least Andy played with his toys gently, kept them safe, and donated them to a younger kid when he outgrew them. That's the absolute most any of them ought to be able to wish for in life. That's as good as it gets.
Kinda bleak, and uncomfortably close to the "good master" defense of slavery, but that's the cosmology Toy Story exists within.
-
Comment on Andreas Freise - Micro ASCII Art (2002) in ~arts
balooga LinkTook me a minute to figure this out, but the orange a:f that appears in all of them is his artist signature. I kept thinking it was either a shape I didn't recognize or a formatting error or...Took me a minute to figure this out, but the orange
a:fthat appears in all of them is his artist signature. I kept thinking it was either a shape I didn't recognize or a formatting error or something.These are pretty good! I love all the little details. Some didn't click at first, like I couldn't tell what the wolf was supposed to look like in "three little pigs" — then I realized it's a cartoony close-up of his head and neck, in the image foreground. Once you see it, it's super cute. I think "knight" is very impressive in its economy and detail. Truth be told, I think most of these are unintelligible without their titles printed directly above them. But once you have that to frame the experience it all comes together pretty neatly. A bit like those Magic Eye pictures in a way. Cool!
-
Comment on US withdraws from sixty-six international organisations in ~society
balooga LinkThe U.S. Constitution survived for 237 years without significant stress testing. That’s pretty good. It was written with checks and balances to protect against 18th-century bad-faith despots....The U.S. Constitution survived for 237 years without significant stress testing. That’s pretty good. It was written with checks and balances to protect against 18th-century bad-faith despots. Clearly those safeguards were inadequate to protect against this new breed of uniquely malevolent autocrats.
I think it’s time to start writing a new constitution informed by the lessons we’ve learned in recent years, which mitigates the risks of corrupt and/or ideological scorched-earth governance. I don’t think the current system can be fixed at this point.
The problem is going to be that any sort of new constitutional convention is going to be immediately co-opted by Musk, Ellison, Miller, Fuentes, Cruz, and the like. We know the players and their agendas. If they see a new deck of cards being shuffled, they’ll do anything in their power to stack it in their own favor.
It seems to me that any serious effort to draft a new constitution would require the absolute transparency and democratic collaboration that only an open-source wiki-like platform can provide. I think it’s totally possible in the internet age for a constitution to actually be written by “we the people” rather than a group of elite founding fathers in a way that could never have been dreamed of centuries ago. Of course, writing the doc is just one part of the reboot process. An important part, but figuring out the rest of the plan is the real sticky wicket.
-
Comment on US withdraws from sixty-six international organisations in ~society
-
Comment on Deleting topics in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentJust playing devil’s advocate, but typically the most inflammatory posts are deleted, making it a lot less obvious what happened for users who didn’t see them before the hammer fell. In those...Just playing devil’s advocate, but typically the most inflammatory posts are deleted, making it a lot less obvious what happened for users who didn’t see them before the hammer fell. In those situations the reason for locking the thread can seem sudden and opaque.
This is rare enough here that it’s never really bothered me. I tend to agree with Tildes moderation anyway. Sometimes I do wish a little mod note was left behind for clarity though; on Metafilter, for example, closed threads will usually be appended with a brief statement like “Closing because of too many personal attacks” or whatever.
-
Comment on Texas becomes first state to end American Bar Association oversight of law schools in ~society
balooga LinkI’ll be the first to admit I don’t really understand the role the ABA plays in modern U.S. law, and I’ve always found it a bit odd that there’s this quasi-private, “voluntary” association...I’ll be the first to admit I don’t really understand the role the ABA plays in modern U.S. law, and I’ve always found it a bit odd that there’s this quasi-private, “voluntary” association overseeing everything. But it seems like they have high standards and the arrangement has generally been a good thing for the legal profession AFAIK. So I’m not defending this news, just admitting my ignorance up front.
The thing I’m finding surprising is that this was able to happen in the first place, given that the Texas Supreme Court is a panel of bar-certified justices, no? Presumably they’re all card-carrying, dues-paying members of the ABA. Why would they rule against it? And wouldn’t the ABA itself have among its membership terms rules against that sort of thing? I’m super clueless here, just assuming that an organization of lawyers with a monopoly on the practice of law would have some mechanisms in place to remain entrenched indefinitely.
The article says that the ABA sued the Trump administration. In a case like that, where the ABA is actually the plaintiff, what attorney would be willing to represent the defendant? What judge would rule against the ABA? Seems like a conflict of interest on both counts. Does the ABA hold any power to revoke individuals’ membership/certification in retaliation for those members willfully undermining it?
-
Comment on All about (computer) love in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI suspect those errors are related to uBlock Origin or another content blocker. If you have one installed, try disabling it on this page.I suspect those errors are related to uBlock Origin or another content blocker. If you have one installed, try disabling it on this page.
-
Comment on Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show 2026 in Las Vegas, Lego's Smart Play system introduces new electronic components to the classic plastic blocks in ~hobbies
balooga Link ParentFrom TechCrunch:From TechCrunch:
Lego’s first two Smart Play sets — which are both Star Wars-themed — will launch on March 1, though preorders open on Friday. The “Luke’s Red Five X-wing” building set will retail for $69.99, while the larger “Throne Room Duel and A-wing” set will cost $159.99. These sets use the Smart Play system to animate characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, allowing them to interact with Smart Tags, which enable Lightsaber duels among other Star Wars-related capabilities.
-
Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
balooga Link ParentYou might be onto something there. Honestly we’re so up to our eyeballs in scams, grifts, and pump-and-dumps these days that it’s legitimately tempting to join in. Feels like shooting fish in a...Market manipulation could be an easy movitation. Buy some cheap, out-of-the-money put options on Uber, post the 'whistleblower' report, and hope that the news media picks it up. If the story goes viral and especially if it catches the attention of regulators or politicians, the stock could drop 10-20% in a profitable manner.
You might be onto something there. Honestly we’re so up to our eyeballs in scams, grifts, and pump-and-dumps these days that it’s legitimately tempting to join in. Feels like shooting fish in a barrel and these modern fraudsters rarely face any consequences (on the contrary, they get elected President and amplify their grifts by factors of magnitude… but I digress). I’m over here struggling to make an honest living for my family when I fully believe I could be raking it in by ripping people off if I just ignored my conscience. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night but damn if I’m not a teensy bit jealous of the crooks these days.
Jonathan Ross, the shooter, was on his cellphone recording his own video while murdering Renee Good. That video has now been made public. Linking to an Instagram reel with commentary because I think it's good, but here's a CNN link if you just want the raw clip.
What's new from this perspective? We see and hear Ms. Good — smiling and speaking politely to the agent. We see her dog in the back of the vehicle. We hear her wife, in the last seconds before the murder, seeing what's about to happen and shouting to her "drive, baby, drive". And after the agent takes her life, we hear him utter "fucking bitch" as her vehicle careens toward parked cars down the street.