• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
    1. What are you reading these days?

      What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.

      16 votes
    2. Are there any good tools for "one-off" file encryption?

      Sorry if this is a silly question, but I keep running into situations where a small CLI or GUI tool that could be handed a single file and hand me back an encrypted version would be useful. I've...

      Sorry if this is a silly question, but I keep running into situations where a small CLI or GUI tool that could be handed a single file and hand me back an encrypted version would be useful. I've done some googling, but all I typically turn up is blogspam about random Windows-only tools that seem to be of dubious quality.

      Anyone know of a good tool for this type of thing?

      9 votes
    3. Helping or harming? The effect of trigger warnings on individuals with trauma histories.

      Publication: Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals with Trauma Histories. Pre-print version (for people, like me, who don't have access to the published version):...

      Publication: Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals with Trauma Histories.

      Pre-print version (for people, like me, who don't have access to the published version): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334380654_Helping_or_Harming_The_Effect_of_Trigger_Warnings_on_Individuals_with_Trauma_Histories

      11 votes
    4. What blogs/newsletters do you subscribe to and why?

      Back in the day I was a hardcore Google Reader (RIP) user, and following that I continued to use https://feedly.com/ for many years, but eventually I found myself falling behind on all my feeds...

      Back in the day I was a hardcore Google Reader (RIP) user, and following that I continued to use https://feedly.com/ for many years, but eventually I found myself falling behind on all my feeds and stopped checking it.

      Recently, I signed for Inoreader and I've started reading more blogs again. It also has the nice feature of letting you subscribe to email newsletters too, which is quite nice since I find them annoying to deal with in my email inbox but convenient in the feed reader.

      I'm wondering what blogs and newsletters folks on Tildes subscribe to.

      Here are a few of my favorites:

      Blogs:

      Newsletters:

      This is just a slice. I can share my entire list if people are interested. But I'm curious about what feeds others enjoy, on anything from film and furniture to "movie-set" urbanism. What are you reading?

      20 votes
    5. What are some examples of "unrelated siblings"?

      This question isn't about people so much as it is about anything else. It's hard to explain outright, so I'll use an example: A few months ago I read Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. I just...

      This question isn't about people so much as it is about anything else. It's hard to explain outright, so I'll use an example:

      A few months ago I read Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. I just finished with Ling Ma's Severance. The two books are completely unrelated but feel very, very close to one another. There are a lot of topical similarities: both portray a global pandemic, a lead female character, and narrative shifts between pre- and post-societal collapse, etc. However, more than that, both feel very tonally similar. I couldn't read Severance without constantly thinking of and comparing it to Station Eleven, and I think I liked both books better together than I did either of them on their own. Even though they're clearly different and written by different people, they very much feel like they come from the same family -- like they're unrelated siblings.

      I'm curious as to what other examples people can come up with, in whatever category you consider: media, historical events, languages, etc. Anything goes as long as they have a familial resemblance.

      9 votes
    6. Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 14

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most...

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

      12 votes
    7. What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

      If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

      8 votes
    8. Fitness Weekly Discussion

      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started...

      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

      7 votes
    9. Cynicism is a tired trope

      Cynicism is the bastard cousin of skepticism. While optimists look for the silver lining, cynics can't fail to see the fly in the ointment and true skeptics are somewhere in the middle. Cynicism...

      Cynicism is the bastard cousin of skepticism. While optimists look for the silver lining, cynics can't fail to see
      the fly in the ointment and true skeptics are somewhere in the middle. Cynicism is an overwhelming trend in internet forums. The most upvoted reactions are usually the more pessimistic (regardless of factuality), and seemingly virtuous attitudes are immediately met with assumptions of bad faith.

      Cynicism is tiresome and can very well lead to false conclusions.

      This may be unlikely, but paradigms can be improved, governments can adopt better policies, corporations can act for the good of society, billionaires can be virtuous philanthropists, assholes can learn to be nice, and bigots can learn to respect diversity. We should be absolutely skeptical of sudden changes of attitude, but indiscriminate cynicism creates an environment that does not reward positive changes, and I don't think that's in the best interest of a community.

      EDIT: I feel I need to clarify that cynicism is not equal to skepticism. Skeptics refrain from conviction in face of insufficient evidence, while cynics assume bad faith even without sufficient evidence. I am not advocating for naïveté, but for healthy skepticism.

      40 votes