-
24 votes
-
What have you been putting off/procrastinating about doing?
Today is the final day to file taxes in the US, and once again I find myself needing to finish up submitting everything instead of having this submitted early (next year will be different!). I've...
Today is the final day to file taxes in the US, and once again I find myself needing to finish up submitting everything instead of having this submitted early (next year will be different!).
I've also been needing to register my youngest son for his US citizenship, as he is born abroad. They recently released a secure way to e-file this, which means my previous "reasons" for putting it off are not relevant (they wanted me to email sensitive information to them, or deliver it in person/via courier)
It made me wonder if there is anything big or small that people wanted to share that they've been putting off? Hopefully talking about it helps you take some action on getting that thing done!
41 votes -
Finland's bid to win Europe's start-up crown – country has spawned twelve unicorn businesses (firms worth a billion dollars or more) like Oura, Supercell, Rovio, and Wolt
16 votes -
Minecraft’s problems aren’t just the new features
28 votes -
Mary Harron reflects on twenty-five years of American Psycho’s heartless humor
9 votes -
If You Drive By - Please Don't Fall In Love (2022)
6 votes -
What's a secondhand heartbreak you've experienced?
Not firsthand heartbreak that happened to you directly, but secondhand heartbreak: it happened to someone else, but the impact hit your heart too. Could be their break-up, rejection, missed...
Not firsthand heartbreak that happened to you directly, but secondhand heartbreak: it happened to someone else, but the impact hit your heart too.
Could be their break-up, rejection, missed opportunity, loss, layoff, etc.
What happened to them?
And why did your heart break for them?
27 votes -
When can we call this a dictatorship?
There is still resistance of a sort within the government, but dictatorships don't require 100% consolidation of all power into the Executive. And if that struggle is being ignored by the...
There is still resistance of a sort within the government, but dictatorships don't require 100% consolidation of all power into the Executive. And if that struggle is being ignored by the Executive, then what difference does it make?
37 votes -
Harvard hit with $2.2 billion funding freeze after rejecting US President Donald Trump’s demands
46 votes -
Where do Red Dead Redemption 2's birds go?
17 votes -
China, Vietnam sign deals as Xi Jinping visits Hanoi amid US tariff tensions
14 votes -
Is "The Pitt" a ripoff of "ER"? - a legal review
5 votes -
Non-app guided meditation recommendations
I used to use the Waking Up app for daily 20 minute guided meditations, and I want to get back into it, but these days I don't use a smartphone most of the time so I'm looking for something...
I used to use the Waking Up app for daily 20 minute guided meditations, and I want to get back into it, but these days I don't use a smartphone most of the time so I'm looking for something similar that I could load up onto the (offline) hardware music player that I use for music and audiobooks. Ideally a number of different similar-length guided meditations (where I could either loop through them in order, or pick one at random for each session). I'm still fairly new to meditation, so I'm probably not aware of all the forms/formats that this kind of thing can take, but the ones I'd been using are 20-30 minutes of mostly silence (but I'm not opposed to the idea of some kind of background white noise) with a guide providing verbal instructions around breathing and relaxation at the beginning, then providing occasional visualization exersizes or affirmations to focus on at occasional intervals.
A few searches shows no shortage of options for this kind of thing (both free and paid), but I'm wondering if anyone has any specific recommendations of something like this that they use or have used and would vouch for the quality. It seems like the kind of category where it would be easy to churn out a bunch of low-effort AI generated slop and disguise it as something else, which I would like to avoid.
9 votes -
El Salvador won’t return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland resident; Department of Justice will leave it up to El Salvador
45 votes -
There must be Nazis in the White House. EO 14188 -> 14/88.
There is now a straight line connecting the White House to Nazis. I know: sounds like a conspiracy theory. However, the dots make a straight line. Just read the below. That's all I ask. Here are...
There is now a straight line connecting the White House to Nazis. I know: sounds like a conspiracy theory. However, the dots make a straight line. Just read the below. That's all I ask. Here are the dots:
- 47 issues Executive order 14188: "Additional measures to combat *Anti-Semitism". 47 has been co-opting "Anti-Semitism" to mean "Anti-Zionism" for a while now. "Anti-Semitism" means "Anti-Jewish". "Anti-Zionist" != "Anti-Jewish". "Anti-Zionism" is disagreeing with the conservative Israeli equivalent of America's "manifest destiny".
- 1488 is a Nazi dog whistle 1488 is often represented as 14/88.
- This EO doesn't make Jews safer. It makes them targets.. This clearly aligns well with the intent behind 14/88.
- The statistical probability of this as a coincidence , EO14188 being about "Anti-Semitism" and the existence of 14/88? Clearly absurdly low.
- Nazis in the White House.
EDIT: Thank you to the folks who amended the tags.
39 votes -
What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
30 votes -
What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
15 votes -
Iceland's largest whaling company Hvalur will not be hunting this season – second consecutive year the company has opted out
15 votes -
Travel tips?
Hi everyone, I just came back from a trip - here are some interesting takeways I thought would be useful to share. Happy to hear from anyone about any other interesting ways to make your life...
Hi everyone, I just came back from a trip - here are some interesting takeways I thought would be useful to share. Happy to hear from anyone about any other interesting ways to make your life better on the road.
- Power: Bring a British power adapter head for airplane / train usage - often the North American style NEMA pins are very loose and this is a handy way of overcoming that problem. A very good solution is one of those power adapters for multiple countries with USBC and USBA ports in addition to being able to plug in. It was amazing on the flight to charge multiple devices at the same time.
- Power: Modern power banks can deliver 100W and hold around 28K mAH (weird power unit, I know...) - even with a laptop you can last all day
- Trusted Traveller Programs: Everyone knows about Global Entry, but a lesser known one is ABTC for Asia - saved me hours of waiting in line. I'm curious if there are any other good ones.
- Networking: A little mini travel router is really useful to auto-connect all of your devices and allows you to use smart home devices. A little finicky in terms of setup so it requires some level of networking knowledge (e.g., MAC cloning). You can bring your own casting devices and take over the TV. You can also use it to share wifi on an airplane but I found it too clunky to want to do this often when flying economy.
- Networking: Bring an ethernet cable and if your laptop doesn't have one, a dongle. Some hotels will have a more reliable eth connection.
- TVs: Some TVs are set in a "hospitality mode" and have HDMI ports disabled.
- Organization: Numbering all of your interal compartments with little tags so that you can make sure you have everything by just running through the numbers - this time, I left behind one bag by accident.
- Finances: A Wise prepaid credit card is very convenient re: paying in local currency.
- Transportation: Consider getting a transponder for whatever local toll system is in place. In the US my research indicates that the best one is the UNI from Central Florida Expressway.
- Transportation: Always have an international driver's permit (IDP) - I forgot to get one ready and couldn't rent a car.
- Passport: Lots of places surprisingly required the physical passport for things like tax free rebates, etc. Important to carry on person in a secure pocket.
- Laundry: Surprisingly, many budget hotels come with either coin laundry or laundry machines, and many AirBnbs have ensuite laundry. It's good to book one in the middle of the trip on purpose to wash your clothes. The fancy hotels had very expensive laundry service $5 per piece of underwear...
- Hotels: Travelling in Asia, I became a fan of the local hotel chains (especially Dormy Inn). Booking cancellable reservations also gave me flexibility to modify my travel plans.
15 votes -
Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 14
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
15 votes -
Eddington | Official trailer
5 votes -
Virgin Orchestra – The Pathetic Song (2025)
2 votes -
Multiplayer games and privacy
So I've been playing a lot of WoW lately and that includes a ton of raids, always with voice chat on discord. Just now I found out that someone is a streamer and broadcast a full raid + the voice...
So I've been playing a lot of WoW lately and that includes a ton of raids, always with voice chat on discord. Just now I found out that someone is a streamer and broadcast a full raid + the voice chat.
I was not part of this particular raid thankfully. And as far as I can tell he doesn't have a lot if any viewers. But it still made me uncomfortable that someone has been streaming my voice without my consent, without my knowledge even. I do not feel that it is unreasonable of me to expect someone to ask for permission before doing this, but maybe I am just completely out of the loop about streaming?
Is it naive to expect privacy in this regard? Is this what one should expect from online gaming nowadays?
20 votes -
How to retrain your brain to crave movement more than screen time
54 votes -
How Europe can become tech-autonomous
13 votes -
Clobazam, an anti-anxiety drug, is polluting our waterways – Swedish study found traces of the drug had altered the way wild Atlantic salmon migrate
11 votes -
We can’t stop checking our phones while watching TV or movies – and it’s affecting the quality of shows
54 votes -
The art of poison-pilling music files
15 votes -
Death to nickels
41 votes -
Matias Faldbakken unveils design for Norwegian national memorial to 2011 attacks – twelve-metre high mosaic will show the reflection of a wading bird native to Utøya island
7 votes -
Yoshinao Satoh animation work
8 votes -
South Korea is over
44 votes -
The Ukraine war after Kursk - retreat, lessons, negotiations and the coming Russian offensive
15 votes -
2025 Masters Discussion
Anyone else watching the final day?
7 votes -
Haste's momentum-based running is nothing like Sonic the Hedgehog | Discovery Queue
13 votes -
Tone Glow 006: Eric Andersen, Crying Places
5 votes -
Jevons Paradox: A personal perspective
12 votes -
Anubis works
35 votes -
Greenland documentary forces Danes to confront their colonial heritage – broadcast of Grønlands Hvide Guld made waves in February in both countries
6 votes -
Peter Watts on ‘Blindsight’, ‘Armored Core’ and working with Neill Blomkamp
23 votes -
UK takes control of British Steel under emergency powers
26 votes -
Monsterpatch: A cozy monster-collecting RPG
32 votes -
Norway-EU ‘situationship’ blossoms – Norwegian PM has argued that Brussels and Oslo need each other now more than ever
16 votes -
Do online petitions actually work?
platforms like change.org for example, do you know of petitions that have been successful ? do you have any personal experience with them?
22 votes -
How does cardiac arrhythmia occur?
19 votes -
My stay at a Swedish eco-retreat was blissful. What's emerged about it since points to a much darker truth.
22 votes -
Haiti turns to weaponized drones in fight against gangs
6 votes -
Thoughts on ProWritingAid
Howdy hey folks, I've recently been trying out ProWritingAid (for the unfamiliar: a grammar/spell checker tool) specifically the premium version with the expanded tool set. And now I want to step...
Howdy hey folks, I've recently been trying out ProWritingAid (for the unfamiliar: a grammar/spell checker tool) specifically the premium version with the expanded tool set. And now I want to step onto the internet soapbox and talk about it. It's been.
Okay.
To preface, I've been writing (casually) for 'bout a decade, mainly short creative fiction. (And a few novel attempts. All of which are incomplete but I'm glad I did them) Throughout my time I've gone through a few tools, text editors and what-have-you-nots. With my ever so gleaming credentials established, let's get into the ramble.
Right out of the gate, automated grammar checkers and creative writing have a rather fun relationship. Half the suggestions are useful and the other half are useless. (This ratio can also tip forward and backward). They'll catch syntax errors, spelling mistakes, missing words or punctuation, all good things to fix.
It'll also flag intentional word choice, sentence structure and other creative decisions. Sometimes this can help but more often than not it'll be sucking the You out of your own words.
ProWritingAid (PWA) tries to sidestep this particular pitfall with Style Guides where it'll be more or less rigorous depending on the selected 'genre'. It's a mixed success. This flaw I don't think will ever be truly fixable given the inherent separation between Author and Tool. So we'll have to make do with clicking "ignore."
Now PWA does a bit more than just grammar check. During my time with it, I've currently used two versions. PWA Everywhere, and PWA Desktop. Everywhere is meant to integrate with your text editing software while Desktop is a contained application. They have similar feature-sets, but not identical. Specifically, Desktop has the Word Explorer feature: a tool that if you highlight a word it'll show some synonyms or you can dig deeper with alliteration, cliches, anagrams, rhymes, reverse dictionary and more. Pretty nifty. PWA Everywhere best to my knowledge and searching does not have this feature- which is disappointing.
Especially since everything else Desktop does, Everywhere does better. The UI alone is far more functional, without clipping or cramping. There's the convenience of direct integration. Some features like Single Chapter Critique (which I'll get into later, trust me) also blank screened in Desktop while working fine in Everywhere. Grand.
Besides the Word Explorer, PWA also gives you AI "Sparks" and Rephrases. I'll be entirely honest, I have these turned off (Which I am glad I was able to do). I don't have much to say here besides I like getting into the creative word weeds myself.
Alrighty, that then leaves me with two more things to discuss: Writing Reports and the Critique features.
Okay. The writing reports are useful. Able to be granular or extensive. They scan every selected element in the text and format the results into a nifty report (or in some modes, direct text highlighting) Having all that data visualized with tables, graphs and bars oh my, (with the occasional cross-work comparison) is a great look-at. Grammar-wise it'll run into the problems mentioned above, but otherwise, this has been the feature I've liked the most.
Finally I can get into the whole thing that inspired me to write this post. The Critique suite. Ohohoho, I have some thoughts about these. Human proofreaders are irreplaceable, just want to toss that out there (PWA also keeps that disclaimer in its header). My friends will never be escaping the random PDFs sent for their lovely review. I am ultimately writing for a human audience afterall. That in mind, I have run into a hilarious problem with the Single Chapter Critique.
Apparently I write too good to get use from it. Truly I am suffering here. In complete honesty, the actual point I'm trying to make is the AI is a kiss-ass sycophant. I fed five of my short stories from across the years into it, just to see what it'd say. It cannot be negative. In each and every one I was praised about various element of the stories. Glowing and gushing, could say no ill.
This is pretty useless. Sure it has the "Potential Improvements" section but it's... eh. In the name of curious study, I am having my non-writer friend compose a piece for me to feed to the machine spirit later. (I also only get three uses a day, compared to the unlimited reports with their nitty gritty)
Now, could this simulated praise be a sign I'm a genuinely good writer? Well I don't need the AI for that- I have friends zip-tied to chairs to feed my ego. (I forever cherish one of my close writing friends telling me: "You have a voice of a fantasy writer from the 70s with a thick series full of wondererous imagination written by a twice divorce middle aged man who is disgruntled with reality. It was never exactly reprinted as it was unknown, but the aging, withered pages hold such a gorgeous narrative that it sticks with you for the rest of your life.")
Back to the AI: Their shining critique falls apart when I look at the story myself and can point to several areas for improvement/refinement with a cursory reading. (Thank you creator's curse, you're my true reliable critic.)
Woe to me, I cannot escape personal proofreading. (Real talk: the hope was have it be able to do the cursory stuff so I could focus on the creative viscera. That's half the fun after all—)
There is two other Critique features, Full Manuscript Analysis and Virtual Beta Reader. I have used neither of these as I do not have any large manuscripts to toss into the jaws. To ensure jolly feelings, it's also a credit based system. So let's talk money.
Scrivener, a writing workhorse that even after years of using I still find new features and has long cemented itself as my text editor of choice, was $45 for a lifetime license. Fantastic software, it has earned its reputation.
ProWritingAid, a grammar and spellchecker was $115 (discounted price) for a year subscription. (Can I mention how idiosyncratic their tier system is? Free, Premium, Premium Pro? Why??? Just name it Free, Pro, Premium. Don't stack luxury words.) For $115, I get several features I don't even use, or aren't very useful. Oh, a discount for the aforementioned analysis credits. ($25 for 1, $70 for 3, $175 for 10. Full priced it's $50, $150, $500 respectively. Spend this money on an actual person please)
Now what's worst off is I wasn't even the one to spend the $115. That was someone else wanting to support me and my writing; an act I am quite grateful for and the meaning behind it. I feel bad complaining. I have hopes for PWA. Something that can act as a quick look proofreader would be wonderful. But perhaps I'm just asking for too much from what is again, a grammar and spellchecker.
So far, I don't know yet. I don't know if I'd call it good or bad. As I started with: it's okay?
Maybe I'll do a retrospective after a while once I've utilized it longer. Maybe features will be better fine tuned in the future.
And that leads me here. What have been y'all's experience with it, if any? Searching online has been miserable; I'd like to hear from other people.
[As a footnote, PWA was not used when writing this. Kinda forgot that I never set it up for browser. Tallyho]
16 votes -
Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of April 13
Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week! Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle...
Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!
Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”
Rules:
- No grey market sales
- No affiliate links
If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.
All previous Save Point topics
If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add
save pointto your personal tag filters.15 votes -
What are your favorite music videos?
I've been on a really big Geese kick lately and the video for Cowboy Nudes made me chuckle. It made me want to watch some of my old favorites, but there is still plenty of itch left to scratch. So...
I've been on a really big Geese kick lately and the video for Cowboy Nudes made me chuckle. It made me want to watch some of my old favorites, but there is still plenty of itch left to scratch. So what are your favorite music videos, and why do you like them so much?
If anyone is curious, my two favorites are:
Typical by Mutemath. They learned how to play the song backwards, which seems impressive and is very Ok Go-esque.
Sleep Now in the Fire by Rage Against the Machine. The Who Wants to be a Millionaire spoof featuring not fun facts that have become less fun over time is good. The directing/editing is great. The bass player jamming out while the cops push him back is amazing. I'd like to say I'd never charge the NYSE floor for a music video, but I can't guarantee what I might do while under the influence of a sweet Tom Morello riff.
26 votes