What if we discover the answers of the Universe, eliminate cancer, halt aging. What's next?
I'm curious to see what you are all feeling and thinking about when such questions arise.
I'm curious to see what you are all feeling and thinking about when such questions arise.
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
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.
Trying something different, and making a discussion thread about Comics that one would want to highlight of the issue, trade, web or any variety. As is tradition, discussion starts on a Wednesday.
Because of a tight schedule for me, I will be posting discussion questions May 16 or 17. Please feel free to join us.
Another strong female lead with Sigourney Weaver in Aliens from 1986.
Besides any thoughts on this movie, what did you think of Sigourney Weaver s performance in this? How do you rank compared to the rest of movies in the Alien-franchise?
The rest of the schedule for April is:
The wife and I are trying to plan a little road trip this summer and we can't even pick a direction so far, let alone a destination. We're realizing part of the difficulty is that we value spontaneity over planning our vacation.
Some of our best times on vacation have been totally serendipitous - like pulling into Pocatello, Idaho and finding out it has a Museum of Clean, which sounds very quirky. And it was. But also quite entertaining as the founder toured us through some of the many ways that people have engineered things to keep their homes clean over the past century or so. Thats not something we'd ever plan ahead to see but it was a fun and entertaining afternoon.
Or pulling into Rawlins, Wyoming and finding out it has the Wyoming Frontier Prison, which is preserved as a museum with lots of interesting stories of its former prisoners. We toured the cell blocks, cafeteria, showers, and then got to into the 'death house' where the hangings took place. And its the first and last time you'll ever get to sit in a gas chamber!
Looking back though, we've missed some great things too. Like getting to San Francisco and realizing that tours of Alcatraz have been been booked up for weeks. Or finding out that we were a few days early to see all the bikes in Sturgis. Or that if you dont have a destination in Iowa, all youre going to see is miles and miles and miles of corn. And then more corn. Oh well, better luck next time? Or better planning?
Which are you, a detail planner or a fly by the seat of your pants vacationer?
Those last 10 laps or so were pretty spicy. Sure, Herta kinda ended that Dixon and Newgarden fight, but I'm not sure that Newgarden would've passed Dixon for P1 even if that hadn't happen. Dixon is a beast.
Theo Pourchaire, the reigning F2 Champion, had a great IndyCar debut, finishing P11 from P22! He apparently hadn't sat in an IndyCar until this weekend for practice and such.
Next race:
Alabama Grand Prix
Barber Motorsports Park
Sunday, April 28
RANK | DRIVER | CAR NO. | STARTS | LAPS | TOTAL TIME | LAPS LED | STATUS | POINTS | AVG.SPEED | PIT STOP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Scott Dixon | 9 | 8 | 85 | 01:42:03.1416 | 42 | Running | 53 | 98.350 | 2 |
2 | Colton Herta | 26 | 4 | 85 | 01:42:04.1214 | 7 | Running | 41 | 98.334 | 2 |
3 | Alex Palou | 10 | 6 | 85 | 01:42:04.9080 | - | Running | 35 | 98.321 | 2 |
4 | Josef Newgarden | 2 | 3 | 85 | 01:42:07.1151 | 19 | Running | 33 | 98.286 | 2 |
5 | Marcus Ericsson | 28 | 5 | 85 | 01:42:07.5185 | - | Running | 30 | 98.279 | 2 |
6 | Will Power | 12 | 2 | 85 | 01:42:18.9055 | 15 | Running | 29 | 98.097 | 2 |
7 | Kyle Kirkwood | 27 | 10 | 85 | 01:42:19.3204 | 1 | Running | 27 | 98.090 | 2 |
8 | Romain Grosjean | 77 | 16 | 85 | 01:42:21.1849 | - | Running | 24 | 98.061 | 2 |
9 | Felix Rosenqvist | 60 | 1 | 85 | 01:42:21.9571 | 1 | Running | 24 | 98.048 | 2 |
10 | Alexander Rossi | 7 | 13 | 85 | 01:42:35.2331 | - | Running | 20 | 97.837 | 3 |
11 | Theo Pourchaire | 6 | 22 | 85 | 01:42:36.5825 | - | Running | 19 | 97.815 | 2 |
12 | Marcus Armstrong | 11 | 9 | 85 | 01:42:43.9623 | - | Running | 18 | 97.698 | 2 |
13 | Linus Lundqvist | 8 | 17 | 85 | 01:42:45.1419 | - | Running | 17 | 97.680 | 2 |
14 | Rinus VeeKay | 21 | 18 | 85 | 01:42:47.5741 | - | Running | 16 | 97.641 | 2 |
15 | Agustin Canapino | 78 | 20 | 85 | 01:42:54.4572 | - | Running | 15 | 97.532 | 3 |
16 | Pato O'Ward | 5 | 14 | 85 | 01:42:56.1377 | - | Running | 14 | 97.506 | 3 |
17 | Graham Rahal | 15 | 12 | 85 | 01:43:05.6606 | - | Running | 13 | 97.355 | 2 |
18 | Sting Ray Robb | 41 | 25 | 85 | 01:43:08.7314 | - | Running | 12 | 97.307 | 2 |
19 | Kyffin Simpson | 4 | 26 | 84 | 01:42:06.5316 | - | Running | 11 | 97.139 | 2 |
20 | Nolan Siegel | 51 | 27 | 84 | 01:42:09.8320 | - | Running | 10 | 97.086 | 2 |
21 | Santino Ferrucci | 14 | 24 | 84 | 01:42:12.4251 | - | Running | 9 | 97.045 | 3 |
22 | Tom Blomqvist | 66 | 15 | 84 | 01:42:28.7772 | - | Running | 8 | 96.787 | 3 |
23 | Christian Lundgaard | 45 | 7 | 84 | 01:42:34.2538 | - | Running | 7 | 96.701 | 3 |
24 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 30 | 19 | 84 | 01:42:52.7942 | - | Running | 6 | 96.411 | 3 |
25 | Jack Harvey | 18 | 23 | 83 | 01:42:31.6976 | - | Running | 5 | 95.590 | 4 |
26 | Scott McLaughlin | 3 | 11 | 71 | 01:26:53.2828 | - | Running | 5 | 96.488 | 2 |
27 | Christian Rasmussen | 20 | 21 | 14 | 00:17:23.1996 | - | Contact | 5 | 95.080 | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Marcus Ericson
Source: IndyCar.com [PDF]
Safety cars made that more interesting than it might've been. I was hoping for some rain!
Feel bad for RB (VCARB). Yuki had a poor weekend of course, but Daniel was doing pretty good today, until Stroll rear-ended him before the restart of the first SC. Both DNF'd.
Sainz and Checo did alright, but I was expecting more from them both.
Norris did great (and was DOTD), but my personal DOTD was Alonso, especially after his crazy save.
Pos | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/Retired | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 56 | 1:40:52.554 | 25 |
2 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 56 | +13.773s | 18 |
3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 56 | +19.160s | 15 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 56 | +23.623s | 12 |
5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 56 | +33.983s | 10 |
6 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 56 | +38.724s | 8 |
7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 56 | +43.414s | 7 |
8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 56 | +56.198s | 4 |
9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 56 | +57.986s | 2 |
10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 56 | +60.476s | 1 |
11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 56 | +62.812s | 0 |
12 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 56 | +65.506s | 0 |
13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 56 | +69.223s | 0 |
14 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 56 | +71.689s | 0 |
15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 56 | +82.786s | 0 |
16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 56 | +87.533s | 0 |
17 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | 56 | +95.110s | 0 |
NC | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | 33 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 26 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 19 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso
Source: F1.com
I'm preoccupied with a couple of things.
The first being that the federal budget was just released and I'm feeling like a national school lunch program and an injection of money into housing with the expectation that cities build higher density dwellings is... Something they should have done mid mandate?
Is there even time to implement this stuff? Are we getting close to the point where we've spent too much?
Second is a quote from a compilation of personal accounts from travellers into this country's north in the 1800s. Farley Mowat assembled the stories and wrote the forward for "Tundra" in the 1960s and says the following
"Until 50 or 60 years ago, the Arctic was a living reality to North Americans of every walk of life. It had become real because men of their own kind were daring it's remote fastness in search of pure adventure", unprotected by the vast mechanical shields that we now demand whenever we step out of our air conditioned sanctuaries".
He goes on to talk about how -- most of all -- easily heated dwellings and running water had a softening effect on people, and that (basically) we fear and avoid Canada's climate far more than our forebearers did.
Wondering what people's thoughts on this are.
From what you learned from grandparents or earlier generations about spending time outside, would you agree that the comforts of home are just too damned seductive?
As the classical argument goes, as the metaphysical aspects of the universe were stripped away by materialism, it was disenchanted. That it became more soulless, barren, and less enjoyable. While this argument has merit, I don't think it's necessarily true.
For example, I'm a hardline materialist, meaning I don't think any metaphysical phenomenon exists, there is no afterlife, and that it's extremely unlikely a "God" exists. However, I also create dramatic and playful narratives around existence. I think of the natural laws of the universe as cold, unfeeling, grand Lovecraftian gods. I also think of the human existence, struggle, and search for warmth and meaning as an existentialist endeavor, a rebellion against this cruel and hostile cosmos. It can be likened to the narrative in Dark Souls or Berserk. A suffocatingly dark cosmos that also has warmth scattered around.
This is my way of "enchanting" these jumbled together random bits that we call a universe, and the lives lived within it. So, other hardline materialists, how do you "enchant" your life and view of the world?
I don't think it will be an issue, but just in case, please, no non-materialist answers. This topic's intention is not to debate anyone about materialism or metaphysics, but to have a conversation among a particular group of people.
Albums typically release on Fridays. This is a thread to discuss week of April 19, 2024 releases that have recently arrived on our doorstep, or been announced for the future. Feel free to share albums, singles, EPs or reissues that have caught your eye and interest, or share your thoughts about any new music that you've had the chance to listen to this week.
Discussion Points
Is there anything you've been looking forward to listening to?
Any releases that have surprised you?
Have you listened to any new music recently? What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past? How does their latest work compare?
Links:
Pitchfork - Out This Week
AllMusic - All New Releases
Stereogum - New Music
Shreddit Release Tracker
New Metal and Hardcore Releases - Lambgoat
Heavy Metal Album Release Calendar - Heavy Music HQ
Upcoming albums - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
I'll have my list later, but wanted to get the topic up now. For the title, just chose a few I quickly saw on lists.
Thoughts: should we narrow this topic to only new releases/announcements from the week it's for (in this case, this week)? I feel like right now there's some overlap between this and the "what are you listening to this week" topics, but I think they can each exist with their own goals.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like united nations, embezzlement and roguelites. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was mystified.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Not really usre where to put this, so mods feel free to move it if you think that putting it under life.style is inappropriate.
My original thought was more related to online cashless payments in general- if you don't know, there's actually a way to donate directly to Tildes to help pay for server costs if you like this site enough. However, I've discovered that I don't like to often do any monetary transactions online- there's just something that's a pain in the butt about entering 19 digits online (16 for card number, then three more for the SVC).
But in the spirit of wanting an actual discussion... buying things online has been an option since I was a teenager, so we're talking about 20 years ago. You'll usually hear people and companies say "You can go shopping right from the comfort of your own home, there's so much to choose from, and if you choose the right option you can have it in just a day or two... just enter your credit card info and you're all set!". But for me personally, it's the last two that I take issue with.
You have the overall credit card issue- right now, I live in a country where cash is still king, even if it IS trying to catch up to other nations with cashless payments. For credit cards, besides entering the number being annoying, and then your address (billing and shipping, usually but not always the same place), it can be far too easy to spend way too much on credit card. Remember, many countries actively push the consumerist mindset, which is a MAJOR trap. And just to mention it- I do NOT trust any sites or devices to remember my card info. I'm VERY paranoid of being hacked- specifically talking about storing any info in something like Google Wallet/Pay/whatever it's called.
But then you have the other issue, and why even though you might get more selection online, I would still rather visit an actual storefront, even if it's an hour or so away. To put it simply- when the transaction is completed, I want to have the item in my possession. Buying online, you always run into the shipping (and handling) issue- Amazon is one of the fastest, and they still take at least two days. In the US, the issue has been made worse because of the post office situation. or in other words: you paid the money, now how long will it take to have the actual physical item? It's probably just a product of how I grew up, but I hate having to wait longer than a day after I've already given you my money.
So, people of Tildes, what about you- do you find online shopping to be extremely convenient, or do you have your own issues with buying things online?
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.
Long story short, I grew up believing that a great deal of worth of someone's life was effecting change, especially politically. That's why I valued activism. It took courage, especially considering I don't live in a developed country.
The older I got and more problems I faced, I started to realize how unsatisfactory, even hollow this was. Modes of activism I engaged in didn't seem to fulfill me emotionally anymore, they were mostly impersonal, and they didn't seem to change anything. I have a lot of views that are extremely unorthodox for the place I live in, and I don't see any political movement that internalizes those values. I am extremely alienated from the "nation" I am supposedly part of, and from the political movements within it.
Another angle is that I recently realized how misguided I was. I was mostly doing mental labor, believing in the axiom that ideas can change things. But after some time and readings, I started thinking activities that aim for collective action and concrete changes (e.g. syndicates) were much more important. These are not available to me.
I feel like I have wasted a lot of my time. I pursued ideals more than my own emotional needs, believing they would make me happy and fulfilled, and they didn't. I pursued a way of engaging in politics that felt good but didn't effect change.
Don't get me wrong, while this is exasperating, it's also extremely liberating, joyful even. I enjoy the moments of quiet destruction that bring about the new. I no longer feel ashamed to admit I want comfort and stability in my life, and I don't want to take unnecessary risks. I have enough problems as is.
With this being said, I haven't given up on effecting change. I think it's much more convoluted and different than what I imagined when I was younger, and it's not generally about "going out there and showing up" or writing political texts and such. There are also levels to creating change, as it's not a binary thing.
At this point, I want to primarily live for myself, participate in some kind of change without risking myself to the point of overwhelming anxiety, and make more personal and real connections with people in general, including during effecting change.
What I've written here is a bit rough, but it's still an ongoing and raw process for me, and this post is more of a conversation topic, rather than a properly structured argument. I am interested in hearing your opinions. Has anyone had similar experiences, or things this post reminded you of?
I had a long-running discussion about this last year with a trans person on the Fediverse. Before that conversation, it had never even crossed my mind that Klinger was anything other than a cis-het guy desperately trying to exploit a weird Army regulation to escape from a war zone ... who may admittedly have become a bit too attached to his wardrobe in the process.
However, she pointed out that Klinger was the closest thing to a role model she had on TV growing up at the time, and that she had definitely seen and identified a lot of traits in Klinger that strongly suggest he (she?) was a semi-closeted trans character, effectively pulling a double-switch, pretending to be a "regular guy" who was pretending to be a cross-dresser just to get out of the Army, while actually having found a way to be openly trans in the US Army all the way back in the 1950s.
Thoughts?
Next up is Run Lola Run (original German title: Lola rennt) from 1999 starring Franka Potente and directed by Tom Tykwer. It won several awards at various film festivals.
Besides any thoughts on this movie, what did you think of Franka Potente's performance in this?
The rest of the schedule for April is:
This is the second of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing Piranesi.
Our next book will be Ursula le Guin the Dispossessed, around the 16th or 17th of May.
I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.
For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.
Here's the IMDb page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/
A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
Preamble ... this is another rambling, jumbled soliloquy that may or may not make any actual points ... or, you know, sense.
"Climate Change is causing the rise in populism".
That is a theory I have entertained for many years -- going back to before the 2016 US Presidential election. And--confirmation bias being what it is--since I believe the theory, I keep seeing anecdotal evidence all over the place connecting the two.
But, thinking about it this morning, looking at it logically ... I still think there is probably a connection, but I'm not really sure. It may well just be a coincidence of timing. And even if there is a connection, I'm just not quite sure what it is. If it is true ... why? What is the actual connection?
So ... why do countries keep electing populist "Trump-like" leaders?
That's already a hard question to answer clearly, without quickly descending into personal attacks and ad hominems and such.
Plus, of course, generalization is problematic ... we're talking about different countries, different cultures, different histories driving each vote. It's not all the same. And yet, over and over again, election after election, it sure looks the same.
I think the main reason is a tribal "fear of invaders" reaction, mostly against the rise of immigration, particularly immigration from (to paraphrase Trump) "the shit-hole countries". Maybe it's an even more basic "fear of change" reaction. But I definitely think, in the US, the rise of Trump was a direct result of the illegal immigration issue -- not exclusively, but that was a big piece of the puzzle. In particular, Trump equating Muslims with terrorists, and Mexican immigrants with criminals, etc.
Here in the EU, immigration -- particularly the 2015 refugee crisis caused by the wars in the Middle East -- was probably the top reason for Brexit, as has been most of the populist surge over here since then. One country after another here keeps electing right-wing leadership based on the "we'll keep out the dirty immigrants" campaign promises. Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, the list just keeps going. I live in Germany these days, and I gotta tell you, there is nothing scarier than seeing a huge surge in popularity in the German far-right.
The other top reason that seems to be driving it is some kind of sense of nationalistic self-determination. People feeling like their country--their home--is being changed by Outside Forces, and trying to lock it down, trying to find a way back to the good old days when the white people ran things and the brown people cooked and cleaned for them.
In Hungary, Orban routinely gets massive support with his constant rants about "Brussels" (meaning the EU) trying to force their gay liberal anti-Christian agenda down the throats of decent God-fearing Hungarians, and I see variations of that theme in most of the populist movements.
Right now, I want to say the populist trend is a response to (or rather, a denial of) the consequences of Colonialism and resource depletion. I think (again, over-simplified), people here in the Industrial Western World do not want to hear that the problems in the rest of the world are our fault, and that we have a responsibility to the people there, to try to help address some of the problems we've helped cause ... and instead, people are electing leaders who tell them the rest of the world is going to hell but it's not their fault and if they just lock down their borders, everything will stay "nice" in their country.
Something like that, anyway.
Okay ... so, resource depletion and a backlash against the consequences of Colonialism.
Does that seem like a fair and reasonable generalization of what is driving the rise in populism?
Because none of that is really connected to Climate Change. Sure, it depends on "which" resources we're talking about, but even in a magical hypothetical world where burning fossil fuels doesn't cause the planet to heat up ... wouldn't we still be seeing just about the same results from the Colonialism-and-resource-depletion issues?
But then again, at a global level, everything is pretty much connected to everything else. I feel like, coming at it from that angle, I could make a fairly good argument that Climate Change and resource depletion are pretty closely related, regardless of which resources you're talking about.
Oh yeah ... one more wrinkle. I'm primarily talking about populism in the US, Canada, UK, EU. I actually know a lot less about the situations in other regions. Asia. Latin America. Bolsonaro. Millei. I know there are others, but names elude me at the moment, and I don't have an understanding of why they are getting elected. Are they part of this trend? Do they blow a hole in my logic? IDK.
tl;dr
Okay ... I guess that's my new thesis -- populism is primarily being driven by a denial of the consequences of Colonialism and resource depletion ... which may or may not be closely related to Climate Change itself; I'm still just not sure.
Or, more broadly, more Climate-Change-inclusive -- populism is about people seeing that the world is dying, and electing leaders who A) tell them it's not their fault, and B) promise to save their country, even as the rest of the world burns.
Thoughts?
Note: I noticed we haven't had these threads since March 22 I believe, and I miss them, so figured I'd copy from a prior format and start one for this week. @TooFewColours started most of the prior ones so shoutouts to them. I also don't want to duplicate any work/posts- so let me know if you have any issue with this. Tossed in a few extra links as well.
This is a thread to discuss 2024 releases that have recently arrived on our doorstep, or been announced for the future. Feel free to share albums, singles, EPs or reissues that have caught your eye and interest, or share your thoughts about any new music that you've had the chance to listen to this week.
Discussion Points
Is there anything you've been looking forward to listening to?
Any releases that have surprised you?
Have you listened to any new music recently? What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past? How does their latest work compare?
Links:
Pitchfork - Out This Week
AllMusic - All New Releases
Stereogum - New Music
Shreddit Release Tracker
New Metal and Hardcore Releases - Lambgoat
Heavy Metal Album Release Calendar - Heavy Music HQ
Upcoming albums - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
I don't think this one is uniquely British, but Yorkshire Puddings are one of my favourite Sunday Roast parts. There are probably 200 different ways to make them. I thought it would be a fun thread to post for the best recipes, if you're so inclined.
If you've never cooked or eaten one, do so, you're in for a treat. They go perfectly with veg and gravy.
My very basic recipe:
*200g plain flour
*3 eggs
*300ml whole milk
Place all in a mixer, whisk it for a solid 3 minutes. Chuck it in the fridge for 15 minutes in an easy pour jug.
Fire up the oven to 200C. Grab a 12 space muffin tin. I know, crazy me, eh!? A muffin tin for Yorkshire's!
Put 1/2 of a tea spoon of vegetable oil into each muffin section (spot the non-chef, not sure what they're called). Put it in the oven to get hot.
Once the oven is at temperature and the oil is bubbling, take out the muffin tin and put the mixture evenly into each section. Put it straight back into the oven and do NOT open the door again for 25 mins. At that point, they will be done. If you do open the door, they will fall flat.
That's it, perfect basic Yorkshires. Put them on your roast dinner and fill it with gravy.
Over to you good folk!
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like libreoffice, engagement and rube goldberg machine. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was keeping tabs.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
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.
I'm used to browsing places like reddit, mastodon, kbin.social and midnight.pub. If I'm lucky I can find something lighthearted, witty or interesting. But there's a lot of outrageous posts as well as personal ramblings that make the effort feel like a slog.
I was slow to get into Tildes because I didn't find much "quick hit" posts, such as a good topical quip. I also wasn't as sure how to navigate to places I might want to post. But I did find it very easy to engage with existing posts.
It's in these existing posts that the transformative stuff happened for me. On other sites, long-form posts were often not in my interest or self-indulgent. But I found myself taking my time here, perhaps guided by the thoughtful comments that I saw already beneath the posts. Looking back, it's like a tone was set that I respected and didn't want to diminish.
The result is that I find the other sites under-stimulating, in spite of their design. Tildes has been really good for helping me reform my internet habits. I don't have that regret of excessive internet use as much now. Thanks to deimos and everyone on the site that makes it what it is.
If I miss one thing, it's using my native language. But at the same time, my gut says that things are good just as they are.
I think my son is the cutest six-month-old that has ever lived, but damn, this month has been so hard.
We all had COVID in the beginning of March, so my wife and I burned a bunch of sick days while being very ill, exhausted, and awake all night with a screaming baby. Screaming.
He got better for about 2 days and then immediately got a nasty cold which he kindly passed to us. More sick days, more screaming, less sleep than we got with COVID.
The cold turned into an ear infection after two weeks of horrible congestion, so his doctor put him on Amoxicillin. Except the Amoxicillin didn't work on the ear infection after 9 days of treatment. Oh, and he started having bloody diarrhea.
We went to the doctor immediately and they said, "Oh, yeah, that's definitely blood and that's not great. We're going to try a different antibiotic now and send his stool to get tested."
Then, my washing machine, which was full of diarrhea pajamas, broke down. After several hours of tear down, I was able to drain it and replace the drain pump.
Washing machine was working great, except the gasket/seal on the door is old and didn't go back on properly during the repair. Water on the floor (minor leak, no big) and now have to deal with replacing that.
Meanwhile, the kid still doesn't sleep at night and seems to communicate mainly through crying, whining, and grunting. The fact that he isn't babbling, squealing, or mimicking us is honestly a little stressful. He's six months old and I'm seeing him "become conscious" in a lot of really amazing ways. His laugh is absolutely incredible, he plays with toys in what seems like a pretty advanced way, he is crushing his physical and cognitive milestones way ahead of schedule, but he has a handful of social milestones he hasn't hit yet. My wife has autism in her family and I have ADHD, so any developmental delays are obviously pretty concerning to me. He is making eye contact and laughing though, so I guess that's good.
I really shouldn't complain. I'm a teacher and we just had a week off. Most people don't get that. But I'm so exhausted and work tomorrow just sounds daunting. We can't send the kiddo to daycare with bloody diarrhea and I seriously cannot take any more sick days this year. I guess one silver lining is that my mother-in-law came up from out of state when my wife told her she was losing her sanity over all of this. So, we do have a couple days of childcare covered this week.
Tl;Dr: Month from hell.
Edit: I'll add a positive. He was super funny and full of laughs today and yesterday during the day time (night time still isn't fun). He also seemed to get a little scared during the eclipse today during totality, and I think that's adorable in a way. He did a pouty whine and only stopped when I put him closer to me and let him see my face.
Anyone else want to share some war stories?
The debate is coming back up because of new talks around student loan forgiveness in the US. I was on the fence about it until I did some extra research for a comment I posted last week.
I am including the comment I posted last week that was from a discussion about whether general education classes should be required for a college degree, but the part about the societal value of a college graduate to the US is relevant.
Higher education is an interesting thing to put a price on because while some classes can provide economic benefits to people who get a higher education, many classes provide more of a societal benefit.
A history class doesn't help an engineer make a jet turbine, but it can help them be an informed voter. College campuses mix people of different races, genders, origins, and socioeconomic classes with each other. The general education courses expose students to different concepts that can help them in their civic lives.
College graduates also have many economic benefits to society. On average, college graduates pay much more in taxes than they take in government benefits over their lifetimes. High school graduates also contribute, but only a modest gain where college graduates contribute 4-5x what they take. Governments invest $28,000 per college student on average but gain $335,000 in net monetary benefit over their lifetime.
I get that many people are opposed to courses that don't directly apply to a career because they have to pay a lot of money out of pocket when the course may only provide a benefit to society. Why can't the government provide loan forgiveness to anyone who graduates? It would take pressure off students and still provide a net benefit to society over having them not graduate.
Next up is The Silence of the Lambs from 1991 starring Jodie Foster. The movie won five major academy awards for Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture.
Besides any thoughts on this movie, what did you think of Jodie Foster's performance in this? Are you familiar with Thomas Harris' novel or the other movies about Hannibal Lector?
The rest of the schedule for April is:
It's 2:45a as I'm posting this. I'm too tired to comment on the race...
Next race is in Shanghai, China -- April 19-21, 2024. First time racing in Shanghai in 5yrs!
POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 53 | 1:54:23.566 | 26 |
2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 53 | +12.535s | 18 |
3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 53 | +20.866s | 15 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 53 | +26.522s | 12 |
5 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 53 | +29.700s | 10 |
6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 53 | +44.272s | 8 |
7 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 53 | +45.951s | 6 |
8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 53 | +47.525s | 4 |
9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 53 | +48.626s | 2 |
10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB HONDA RBPT | 52 | +1 lap | 1 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
12 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
13 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
14 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
15 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
16 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
17 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
NC | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 12 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB HONDA RBPT | 0 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 0 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen
Source: F1.com
This is a question I eventually ask about every social media site I use(d). I like Tildes, and the discussions here are much more constructive than any other place I've seen, however I've seen it to be true even here. When one doesn't curate their feed, and use the default home page, the negative topics seems to dominate. I'm talking about the topics that talk about problems and what's wrong with something, often with titles implying the awfulness or emergency of such a problem. I think I don't need to elaborate on how this is much more prevalent and extreme on other sites. But nevertheless, it's a recurring pattern even here.
I know the argument that goes that humans are problem-fixing machines, and that there are psychological incentives to focus on problems. However, this seems overly reductive and lacking in explanatory power to me. Outside of internet, this is not a phenomenon I've experienced with people, unless they were mentally going through something very rough. Otherwise, people generally seem to talk about neutral or positive issues. And even while talking about negative issues, the tone often isn't grim, and doesn't leave a depressive aftertaste.
Even on the internet, in smaller spaces and more closed spaces, like chatting servers, this doesn't seem to hold true. Sure, there are politically-oriented, and therefore problem-oriented spaces even there, but most spaces don't seem to be that way. Back when I used Facebook too, while the posts were vain, most of my friends and acquaintances were just interested in sharing and commenting on social lives.
So I think this is a problem that is more endemic to "open" social media sites, with easily accessible and open-to-public spaces, rather than applying to the whole humanity or even every internet space. Its one of my biggest head scratchers about social media sites. So far I couldn't find a satisfactory explanation in the literature either. Doesn't mean there isn't, but I haven't stumbled upon such.
So, I'm interested in your opinions: Why do negative topics dominate on open social media sites, even here, unless curated against? Why is this such a strong recurring pattern for sites structured like this, while it's not in other online and physical spaces and interections I mentioned?
I assume everyone in the New York/New Jersey/eastern PA/maybe northern Delaware area just felt their buildings shaking.
That was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake originating near Lebanon, NJ (a ways west of Edison). You can look at the details from the US government's earthquake tracking website.
I've never felt an earthquake before, so that was something. I thought the people above me had turned on a motorcycle or something. I had no clue what could shake the building like that. Then it dawned on me. Not the place you expect these things. (I'm sure the Californians find this cute!)
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like discord, boeing and april fools day. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was noticing.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
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.
This behaviour is thankfully not common on tildes? But like, I understand that if they try to pass off as their own argument. But what with the preface "I ask ChatGPT" and then end with "I don't know enough about topic" or "What do you think". What do they think how that contribute to the discussion? If OP want to ask ChatGPT-like answer, they can just log on and do it right there and then. And they clearly know the stigma and drawback of it (at least I hope so), but still believe it has enough factual information in the answer despite having little or no knowledge of the topic in question (Otherwise they will edit the output or outright just provide it).
(Sorry, if this come out not clearly, I am not very good as convey my idea, even in my native language)
You might ask yourself “monthly mystery commenters”? Well, let me attempt to explain. I have noticed that on a semi frequent basis, someone will reply to me in a comment. The sort of comment that does invite a reply and isn't a stand-alone comment. Yet, in the case of these comments, whenever someone replies they never do reply in turn.
Of course, it is entirely possible for people to decide to not reply and still reply elsewhere on tildes. In this case, however, I noticed that there is a group of people who only ever leave single replies and never respond to any follow-ups. More often than not, I have noticed these are people who only leave a comment once per month or every few weeks. Hence, the title referring to the practice of monthly hit-and-run comments.
It is a bit of a curious pattern, isn't it? To me, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, I get that people sometimes don't want to continue a conversation. But to structurally leave comments to never follow up on replies is entirely alien to me. Even more so for comments that really are replies to other people, not stand-alone comments.
This whole thing has got me scratching my head just enough to make this post. Are they dropping these comments with the best of intentions to return, only to get swept up in other aspects of life? Or is it more about leaving a mark, however brief, to say, “I was here” without the commitment to a full-on conversation? Maybe it's something completely different I haven't even considered.
So, hit-and-runners, what drives you? I am genuinely curious about this and looking forward to any replies.
This already did get a lot more responses than I ever thought it would get. One observation so far is that a lot of people that replied seem to identify with the title. Yet, so far, for all people I checked they don't fit the type of commenter as I describe in the post itself. It is possible my description just sucks, maybe there is room for a future discussion about commenting based on titles alone. ;)
It's still interesting to read all the different perspectives people have about commenting!
Tiny edit: because of the subject, I almost feel obligated to respond to most people. I really shot myself in the food there :D As that is an impossible task, sorry to the folks I don't end up replying to.
Post any fun stuff you find here!
We are starting the month with female leads with Moonstruck from 1987 starring Cher in the leading role as Loretta. A role than won her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Besides any thoughts on this movie, what did you think of Cher's performance in this?
The rest of the schedule for April is:
Apologies to @etiolation, if they are still around and it's a problem, for coopting this thread.
I want to start writing. My goal is to be a famous and well-compensated pundit with lots of beautiful young groupies and first class tickets spilling out of my inbox.
I'll settle for having a minor impact making someone's life a little better.
But, I really don't know how to get started in making it useful, how to engage in a broader community of writiers and develop and connect with an audience.
So I'm reaching out to the highest quality online community of which I am a part:
Is there anyone here who knows their writing has impacted another? Would you care to share the how's, the why's, and the wherefores?
Is anyone here a part of a writing group that's open to new members? Would you share?
Is there anywone here who has made money as a writer?
My particular writing focus is how to increase the level of "goodness" in the world. I don't even yet have a fully formed idea of what I think that is, perhaps a good topic for an essay. But, I don't even really know what an essay is. Somehow I got through a liberal arts education with decent grades, but don't seem to really know diddly squat about abstract thinking. More importantly, I don't have a well defined goal of the point of anything, with one exception: connection. The only time I truly feel at peace in this world is when I feel connected to another human. And it's a thing that perhaps a lot of folks take for granted, but which I was (presumably inadvertently) trained to avoid at all costs as very young person.
So, if you have any thoughts on how to develop focus and form, and identify venue, and raise profiles and get feedback, I'd be most obliged.
All the best and all the blessings
A lack in friendships is a well-known issue that affects adult males in particular. Please don't move this post to ~life. Thanks.
As I age, my ambivalence towards social interactions becomes clearer. I can't really sustain the doom and gloom facade, as it is entirely obvious that, if I ever achieve "solitary utopia", the first thing I would do would be to find someone to talk about how great it is to be alone.
I used to have an awesome way to do things where I saw my friends 5 or 6 times a year. It was enough for me. Unfortunately, that group is imploding since mid-pandemic, and I don't think there's a way back.
This is made worse by the fact that most men I know are either completely ignorant, downright hostile, or intentionally removed from anything relating kids or fatherhood. Sometimes it feels like I am carrying some kind of virus, and spending time with me will make them become fathers by association.
It's hard to not feel jealous of the kind of support my wife gets from her female friends.
Given the current situation, I feel inclined to ask. Has anyone managed to make meaningful friendships in their 40s or early 30s? And by that I don't mean just someone to play videogames with, but someone with whom you can share stuff?
I am not really opposed to friendships with women, but that is kinda covered already.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like francis scott key bridge, decriminalization and pain.chronic. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was perplexed.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
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.
This is an off-the-cuff, stream-of-consciousness post, so IDK how much sense it'll make.
This idea of quitting the Internet is not new for me, but it's also never been a serious, "consider-the-pros-v-cons" plan, either. Just a kind of knee-jerk reaction to seeing things online that remind me (more and more often, these days) that the 'Net is not what I hoped-and-wanted it to be, and it is becoming less like it, daily.
But in recent months, for me, I find myself thinking about it more, more often, and more seriously.
For a bit of context, I am a software developer (I guess), 20+ years in the field, more back-end than front-end, but quite a lot of web development, too. And I've been burned out in my field for the last several years, working occasionally, but mostly just living off of savings ... watching them dwindle, while I try to figure out what else to do with my life.
I also think there is some kind of burgeoning groundswell towards some similar ideas ... many people becoming more and more disgusted with what corporations and governments have done and are doing to it, trying to find some way to walk away from it w/o completely severing themselves from the modern world. The latest generation of AI and the new magic word, "enshittification" are certainly making more people realize that the 'Net is not headed in a good direction.
I could so easily go into a long-winded rant about "this isn't the Internet we were promised", and yada ... but whatever. It is what it is, and many people are happy with it, and many, many more are just quietly resigned to it being a necessary part of life.
For many, many years, I have explored online alternatives, the dark web, assorted distributed-network ideals like Hyperborea and IPFS. I keep seeing potentials, but nothing that ever coalesces.
Again, just stream-of-consciousness here ... anyone else ever find themselves seriously considering this, or something similarly drastic?
This is Album of the Week #26 ~ This week's album is Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
Year of Release: 1998
Genre(s): East Coast Hip Hop, Boom Bap
Country: United States
Length: 78 minutes
RYM | Listen!
Excerpt from Albumism:
Instead, the crew thrived, slightly updating its sound, but remaining true to its roots. While the music was more melodic and a bit cleaner, the soul of the group remained intact. If anything, as Guru says to open the album, both the rhyme style and the style of beats are “elevated.” Behind the boards, Primo runs a clinic in hip-hop production, showcasing his superior sample chopping skills. Guru turned in the best lyrical performance of his career, and honestly one of the best lyrical performances of the past quarter-century. He even produced a pair of tracks on the album, the first time he had received the sole production credit on a Gang Starr album.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
--
Last movie not winning Best Picture is Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan from 1998. It won for directing, cinematography, film editing, sound effects and sound editing
Besides any thoughts on this movie, have you seen the other nominees that year and do you think this deserved the win instead?
The other nominees:
The schedule for April is:
Quite an exciting weekend. Drivers having problems keeping it on track during FPs, Albon's crash and Logan's sacrifice, a pretty good Quali, and then Max's shocking DNF in the early laps of the race.
But if I'm being honest, the rest of the race wasn't that exciting. What does that say about current state of F1?
Anyway, moral of the the weekend: get your appendix removed; you'll become a Smooth Operator.
POS | NO | DRIVER | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 55 | Sainz | 58 | 1:20:26.843 | 25 |
2 | 16 | Leclerc | 58 | +2.366s | 19 |
3 | 4 | Norris | 58 | +5.904s | 15 |
4 | 81 | Piastri | 58 | +35.770s | 12 |
5 | 11 | Perez | 58 | +56.309s | 10 |
6 | 14 | Alonso | 58 | +80.992s | 8 |
7 | 18 | Stroll | 58 | +93.222s | 6 |
8 | 22 | Tsunoda | 58 | +95.601s | 4 |
9 | 27 | Hulkenberg | 58 | +104.553s | 2 |
10 | 20 | Magnussen | 57 | +1 lap | 1 |
11 | 23 | Albon | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
12 | 3 | Ricciardo | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
13 | 10 | Gasly | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
14 | 77 | Bottas | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
15 | 24 | Zhou | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
16 | 31 | Ocon | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
17 | 63 | Russell | 56 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 44 | Hamilton | 15 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 1 | Verstappen | 3 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Charles Leclerc
Source: F1.com
This is a thread to discuss 2024 releases that have recently arrived on our doorstep, or been announced for the future. Feel free to share albums, singles, EPs or reissues that have caught your eye and interest, or share your thoughts about any new music that you've had the chance to listen to this week.
Discussion Points
Is there anything you've been looking forward to listening to?
Any releases that have surprised you?
Have you listened to any new music recently? What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past? How does their latest work compare?
Links:
Pitchfork - Out This Week
AllMusic - All New Releases
Stereogum - New Music
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like glassdoor, monopolies and steam.families. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was curious.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!