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    1. Where do you share your art with the world?

      Where do you share the art that you make with the world? Do you use a social media site? A personal website? Do you keep it all to yourself? Is your art something that can't be shared online so...

      Where do you share the art that you make with the world? Do you use a social media site? A personal website? Do you keep it all to yourself? Is your art something that can't be shared online so easily?

      35 votes
    2. Fresh Album Fridays: Swans, Kelly Clarkson, Young Thug, and more

      Good morning. This is a thread to discuss new album releases arriving at our doorsteps today. I'll be experimenting this week with posting each album as a comment. Do share releases you'd like to...

      Good morning. This is a thread to discuss new album releases arriving at our doorsteps today.

      I'll be experimenting this week with posting each album as a comment. Do share releases you'd like to raise by leaving a comment with that release.

      Discussion Points

      Have you listened to this release?
      What are you looking forward to listen to?
      What are your thoughts?
      What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?

      Why Friday?

      Most (but not all) new music releases on a Friday, as labels want to give the the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.

      ~~ Any feedback on the format welcome!

      18 votes
    3. If you're struggling to eat

      Search for food banks in your area. There are three in my town and one gets really good product from some of the nicer stores in town. They give us two grocery bags to fill, then usually have two...

      Search for food banks in your area. There are three in my town and one gets really good product from some of the nicer stores in town. They give us two grocery bags to fill, then usually have two more bags filled with pasta or soup mixes. And that doesn't account for the fresh produce they provide. I've filled my, my sister's, and my mom's pantries from a single visit to the food bank. I never felt like I was taking too much, but I always end up with more than one man can eat on his own. So, my sister gets to feed her kids and my mom can feed the ladies that help her at home. Their hours may conflict with your work schedule, but a single trip can benefit you immensely. Maybe get a friend to go if it doesn't work out timing wise for you.

      38 votes
    4. Any archery fans in here? Let's get something started!

      Hey guys! I do traditional archery, make my own gear, and I love talking about it. If you're not an archer, please feel free to peruse the comments and ask questions if you have any! As for my...

      Hey guys!

      I do traditional archery, make my own gear, and I love talking about it. If you're not an archer, please feel free to peruse the comments and ask questions if you have any! As for my questions for you:

      • How did you get into it?
      • What's your setup like?
      • What are your archery-related goals and expectations for the year?

      My first exposure to archery began as early as Zelda 1 for the NES. I instantly understood the value of being able to attack moblins and gohmas from afar. It was not until the pandemic some 30 years later that I picked up my old man's bow and fell in love with something that I feel I've been missing all of my life. My setup is a 50" cartel doosung epic zen korean bow that reaches 50# @ 32" max draw length with a modified cowhide and deerskin grip. I use only wooden arrows. I tend to draw my bow only to 28", however, which reaches 36#, and that's enough for now as I'm recovering from some shoulder pain. My goals this year are to recover, stay in form, and to make an educational video about arrows.

      26 votes
    5. Looking for suggestions on new piano pieces to learn

      I've recently started teaching myself piano again after a long hiatus. I started by picking back up a piece I half-remembered from years ago -- Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 -- and...

      I've recently started teaching myself piano again after a long hiatus. I started by picking back up a piece I half-remembered from years ago -- Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 -- and about the first half of it feels right for my current skill level (basically everything up until all the RH 16th note runs start). While that's going great so far, I no longer have a piano teacher to recommend me new pieces beyond just this one, and I'm not entirely sure where to look myself to find things that are interesting without being too technically challenging. Would love a few recommendations from any pianists on here, either for specific pieces to look into and/or for good ways to find suitable pieces more broadly!

      15 votes
    6. [SOLVED] Have synopsis, need help identifying book title please

      Kids or younger reader book. Fantasy genre. In this book world weather can be controlled by sorcerers, and especially powerful sorcerers can summon dragons. When the sorcerers die the dragons...

      Kids or younger reader book. Fantasy genre.

      In this book world weather can be controlled by sorcerers, and especially powerful sorcerers can summon dragons. When the sorcerers die the dragons vanish, except in the case of the most powerful sorcerers where their dragon is buried with them. The villain wanted the scales of the blue dragon that belonged to a sorcerer. There were also weather spells that were too destructive and were trapped, including the scarlet snow that made people fall asleep. The villain was holding the main character's parents hostage. The main character can summon a dragon. The main character is going to school to become a meteorologist

      Other key words that may or may not be the same story -- Yeti, ball lightning, jar, lab, gardening supply shop

      11 votes
    7. Terrible, terrible movies?

      Since there are topics about cult classics and movies that everyone loves, I figured I'd make another thread about movies that you love that everyone else hates! I've got to start with Jupiter...

      Since there are topics about cult classics and movies that everyone loves, I figured I'd make another thread about movies that you love that everyone else hates!

      I've got to start with Jupiter Ascending. A lot of you know that I'm an unabashed fan of the Wachowskis, and this is almost universally recognized as their worst movie. It's pretty easy to see why; it's a confused mess. But even so, you can see the vision behind it. The story goes that they wanted this to be a three-film series much like they did with the Matrix sequels, but at one point the studio decided that they just wanted to make one film, so we got a very long hyper-compressed version where things weren't allowed to make much sense. The visuals are fantastic as you would expect from a Wachowski film, but the real diamond in the rough here is Eddie Redmayne's performance.

      Branded is an almost objectively terrible movie. It's a fairly well put-together movie, but the idea behind it was bad. To make matters worse, the company that promoted it released trailers that basically just lied about what it was about, basically just scamming the audience into thinking it was a much more interesting movie. The IMDB page still has a fairly misleading description to this day. Thankfully I went into it blind, and I actually enjoyed it. The message was good, even if the storytelling wasn't, and it had a surprisingly excellent soundtrack.

      54 votes
    8. Are we stuck on a innovation plateau - and did startups burn through fifteen years of venture capital with nothing to show for?

      The theses I would like to discuss goes as follows (and I'm paraphrasing): during the last 15 years, low interest rates made billions of dollars easily available to startups. Unfortunately, this...

      The theses I would like to discuss goes as follows (and I'm paraphrasing): during the last 15 years, low interest rates made billions of dollars easily available to startups. Unfortunately, this huge influx of venture capital has led to no perceivable innovation.

      Put cynically, the innovation startups have brought us across the last 15 years can be summarized as (paraphrasing again):

      • An illegal hotel chain destroying our cities
      • An illegal taxi company exploiting the poor
      • Fake money for criminals
      • A plagiarism machine/fancy auto-complete

      Everything else is either derivative or has failed.

      I personally think spaceX has made phenomenal progress and would have probably failed somewhere along the way without cheap loans. There's also some biotech startups (like the mRNA vaccines that won the race to market during covid) doing great things, but often that's just the fruits of 20 years of research coming to fruition.

      Every other recent innovation I can think of came from a big player that would have invested in the tech regardless, and almost all of it is "just" incremental improvements on several decades old ideas (I know, that's what progress looks like most of the time).

      What do you think? Do you have any counterexamples? Can you think of any big tech disruptions after quantitative easing made money almost free in 2008?

      And if you, like me, feel like we're stuck on a plateau - why do you think that is?

      83 votes
    9. Quasar hunting in amateur astrophotography

      I'm not sure how big the astrophotography community, if any, is on ~tildes but I'd figure I'd open a topic up and see! Astrophotography is one of my hobbies, and it was brought to my attention...

      I'm not sure how big the astrophotography community, if any, is on ~tildes but I'd figure I'd open a topic up and see! Astrophotography is one of my hobbies, and it was brought to my attention (see link for two quasars near the M3 globular cluster) that it's actually pretty easy to photograph quasars. The same are visible in my attempt at photographing M3. Anyway, my question here is does anybody know of any particular interesting or distant quasars to photograph? I assume most will just be "dots" but it still sounds like fun since they're among the most distant objects you can see. I assume most quasars would be broad spectrum, so no filters are really needed, but I'm also curious if there's any bright yet redshifted objects you'd need infrared to capture.

      My setup is an Astro-Tech AT80EDT 80mm Refractor f/6. I just got the f/0.8 reducer which I'm excited to take for a spin. It's a chonky piece of glass. My camera is a ZWO ASI585MC which does decent enough for deep sky.

      Edit: To add, using something like http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ is great for finding interesting objects once I've already taken a photo, but it's less helpful to plan my shots.

      13 votes
    10. Creating an Android app - Help refer a book or guide?

      For most of my life, I've been a hobbyist programmer. From Qbasic to Python and JavaScript. I've always wanted to create an Android app, really just for me, just to do it. It's a bucket list...

      For most of my life, I've been a hobbyist programmer. From Qbasic to Python and JavaScript. I've always wanted to create an Android app, really just for me, just to do it. It's a bucket list thing.

      Can you give me a book or a website guide that is up to date and complete but not 100,000 pages long that could help me get it done? A book would be preferred! I just want to cross this off my list!

      13 votes
    11. Canadian interest rate increases = stave off the housing bubble (or create a spectacular burst?)

      Do you guys think they're using rate increases to kill off all the overleveraged homeowners in an effort to create a sell-off and thereby lower housing costs? Could someone smarter than I please...

      Do you guys think they're using rate increases to kill off all the overleveraged homeowners in an effort to create a sell-off and thereby lower housing costs?

      Could someone smarter than I please explain what is going on... or is our inflation that bad? Seems like some of the inflation might be what I've read as greedflation. I didn't realize we jumped almost 3.75% in less than a year last year...

      20 votes
    12. Are we in "late stage" capitalism? What's next?

      I often engage in thoughtful discussions with my friends regarding our current socio-economic situation, and I find it challenging to discover a more fitting description than the term coined for...

      I often engage in thoughtful discussions with my friends regarding our current socio-economic situation, and I find it challenging to discover a more fitting description than the term coined for it.

      Wherever I direct my attention, I observe life increasingly being shaped by the well-oiled machinery of capitalism, a system devoid of inherent morals and existing solely to maximize profits for its shareholders.

      To me, the notion of "late stage" capitalism implies a bleak future fueled by the insatiable demand for constant and unsustainable growth. This, in turn, hampers our ability to effectively plan for the future, as investors prioritize immediate gains. Consequently, our planet suffers the repercussions through climate change and the exacerbation of wealth inequality.

      Moreover, the ruling of FEC vs Citizens United, wherein corporations were granted the ability to lobby as individuals, seems to have unleashed a relentless flywheel that perpetuates and nourishes the insatiable beast of capitalism and greed.

      I am genuinely intrigued by the perspectives of others on this topic. If we collectively recognize that we are heading in an unfavorable direction, what steps can we take to regain a more positive trajectory? How can we incentivize prioritizing moral values and environmental impact over monetary gains?

      101 votes
    13. You Only Live Once (First Impressions of Earth - The Strokes) is maybe the best opener to an album. Thoughts?

      While listening to the album this morning, I had a thought. You Only Live Once is a perfect transition from The Strokes previous two albums (Room On Fire, Is This It), to the evolved, more mature...

      While listening to the album this morning, I had a thought. You Only Live Once is a perfect transition from The Strokes previous two albums (Room On Fire, Is This It), to the evolved, more mature sound on display in this album. It bridges the albums so perfectly. What do you all think? What are your favorite album openers?

      Also, I'm new to tildes, a reddit refugee (redfugee?). Really glad to be joining the community!

      6 votes
    14. Delta Green handler advice

      I’m going to run Delta Green for the second time tomorrow and I’m excited! However, I’m looking for some tips on running a session and/or your favorite scenarios to run. What are your thoughts?

      7 votes
    15. Recommend lesser known YouTube channels that make well designed videos

      Would love to watch videos that are well designed edited, especially done so in an original manner but have a low subscriber count (less than 75k subscribers?). The content could be vlogs, video...

      Would love to watch videos that are well designed edited, especially done so in an original manner but have a low subscriber count (less than 75k subscribers?). The content could be vlogs, video essays, travel, design!

      62 votes
    16. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      8 votes
    17. Invite system

      Hey everyone! Can I get a rundown on how to earn an invite link? I've got a friend who is interested in migrating off of Reddit and I'd like to be the one to invite him :)

      12 votes
    18. Help me decide on moving from android chrome to a more privacy friendly browser

      I use the default Chrome browser on Android and tired of it due to mainly two reasons: Intrusive ads. It's not just the ads themselves but the overwhelming bandwidth they consume. Plus chrome...

      I use the default Chrome browser on Android and tired of it due to mainly two reasons:

      1. Intrusive ads. It's not just the ads themselves but the overwhelming bandwidth they consume. Plus chrome neither blocks the ads itself, nor allows us to install an extension like ublock origin.
      2. No Extension support. I've written a few extensions for things like enhancing the reddit experience, a customized new tab, etc. which work on my desktop chrome but not on my mobile since android won't support extensions.

      I'm the kind of power user who has the potential to do the right thing but is too lazy and tolerant to actually make the switch!

      If only Android chrome allows the extension feature, my problem will be solved tremendously. If I switch to a new browser, I'll not only have to evaluate its effectiveness but also switch to a different password manager like bitwarden (unless I change my desktop browser too).

      I initially considered raising a change.org petition asking Google to add Extensions support to chrome on android, but soon realized that it might be a total waste of time and energy, so I've finally decided to switch.

      Here are the potential candidates with pros/cons as I understand (but open to new suggestions):

      1. Firefox: Clearly my favorite as I've used it before. Most privacy centric and flexible to my knowledge, only con is speed/performance and some sites like youtube don't work effectively on android version?
      2. Kiwi: I've almost made up my mind on this. As I understand, this is based on the open source chromium and is effectively degoogled chrome + extension support?
      3. Brave: Heard a lot about it lately, want to understand it more but the "take this crypto in lieu of these ads" philosophy doesn't sound very thrilling to me.
      46 votes
    19. Beer peeps, what have you been drinking?

      Lately I've been into La Fin du Monde, which is a Triple Blond from Canada. When I took the first sip it put a smile on my face. Very complex flavors. It has that Trippel flavor but I detect some...

      Lately I've been into La Fin du Monde, which is a Triple Blond from Canada. When I took the first sip it put a smile on my face. Very complex flavors. It has that Trippel flavor but I detect some of what I'd call 'berry and spice'. I'm not some beer expert, nor do I have the vocabulary to accurate explain the profile. All I can say is it's worth a shot!

      Other than that Sam Adams Summer has been great for the hot days.

      47 votes