DesktopMonitor's recent activity

  1. Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech

    DesktopMonitor
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    What is actually happening is just lots of us getting up to go to work or school. You can see older businesses closing and homes being closed up after their occupants pass way since we live in an...

    What is actually happening is just lots of us getting up to go to work or school. You can see older businesses closing and homes being closed up after their occupants pass way since we live in an increasingly aging society. New homes and businesses are constantly being built too, but it still shows. The cost of goods and services have been rising, most notably the price of rice which is a *pretty solid indicator of feeling okay or not about your finances. Still, you can see lots of discretionary spending on goods and millions of people are constantly traveling domestically to enjoy themselves in their free time. These days there has been an influx of foreigners mainly from Nepal according to gov’t data. It makes sense since the value of the yen has been weakening compared to a bunch of other currencies, so the people for whom it is worth it to move here for work have changed accordingly. That’s about it from where I stand.

    4 votes
  2. Comment on Can you really be addicted to food? Researchers are uncovering similarities to drug addiction in some eating patterns. in ~food

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    If there is still some addictive need for food that semaglutide doesn’t take care of then I sincerely want to wish you the best in finding a way to quash it. Hang in there 💪

    If there is still some addictive need for food that semaglutide doesn’t take care of then I sincerely want to wish you the best in finding a way to quash it. Hang in there 💪

    2 votes
  3. Comment on If AI can diagnose patients, what are doctors for? in ~health

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    Well, confirmed that we’re still around peak hype. I’d think the New Yorker would write better headlines at least. The attention baiting is gross. Is it so hard to choose something moderate like...

    Well, confirmed that we’re still around peak hype. I’d think the New Yorker would write better headlines at least. The attention baiting is gross. Is it so hard to choose something moderate like ‘Reexamining the role of doctors in the age of AI diagnosis’?

    12 votes
  4. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games

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    Some hints for anyone playing this for the first time: in the very beginning There is a robot that you fight in a park and a fountain to regenerate hp. Repeat this fight until you are level 10...

    Some hints for anyone playing this for the first time:

    in the very beginning There is a robot that you fight in a park and a fountain to regenerate hp. Repeat this fight until you are level 10 before continuing with the game and you’ll be able to spend a lot more time enjoying things since you won’t have to drop into leveling catch up mode.
    if you are stuck because you can’t catch the *** Use your keyboard instead of a USB/Bluetooth controller.
    4 votes
  5. Comment on Twenty-one facts about throwing good parties in ~life

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    This article has some nice common sense tips but also recommends using apps for inviting and invitee tracking. By the end of the list it all seems to be a bit much.

    This article has some nice common sense tips but also recommends using apps for inviting and invitee tracking. By the end of the list it all seems to be a bit much.

    3 votes
  6. Comment on Are touchscreens in cars dangerous? in ~transport

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    Honda got rid of a lot of their touch-only stuff in the past 10 years and I couldn’t be happier with it. The alternative is talking with my car to tell it to do stuff which is annoying in its own...

    Honda got rid of a lot of their touch-only stuff in the past 10 years and I couldn’t be happier with it. The alternative is talking with my car to tell it to do stuff which is annoying in its own right.

    6 votes
  7. Comment on So was there no song of the summer this year? in ~music

  8. Comment on Disney’s boy trouble: studio seeks original IP to win back Gen-Z men amid Marvel, Lucasfilm struggles in ~movies

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    My lukewarm take on this is that Disney’s biggest problem is its own name. Their original brand identity is so powerful that it distorts everything it comes into contact with. Unfortunately for...

    My lukewarm take on this is that Disney’s biggest problem is its own name. Their original brand identity is so powerful that it distorts everything it comes into contact with. Unfortunately for them, they will never put Disney under the umbrella of a larger and distinctly non-mouse/princess organization. Their issues will thus persist.

    5 votes
  9. Comment on AI is a mass-delusion event in ~tech

    DesktopMonitor
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    For someone who does not read about or involve themselves with LLMs daily, could you elaborate a bit on what ‘unexpected emergent properties’ refers to?

    […] we found out that if we just make a neural net big enough, it starts to have unexpected emergent properties

    For someone who does not read about or involve themselves with LLMs daily, could you elaborate a bit on what ‘unexpected emergent properties’ refers to?

    5 votes
  10. Comment on Looking for surreal horror/mindbending in ~books

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    If you feel that way about Chiang then I’d love to hear your take on Neil Stephenson.

    If you feel that way about Chiang then I’d love to hear your take on Neil Stephenson.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on In Tokyo for a couple of days, inviting recommendations in ~travel

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    Tokyo is a collection of cities across a vast metropolitan area, each with its own distinct neighborhoods centered around transit hubs. Anything you are looking for will be in most places in a...

    Tokyo is a collection of cities across a vast metropolitan area, each with its own distinct neighborhoods centered around transit hubs. Anything you are looking for will be in most places in a given area, but some places will hit the spot more than others for certain things.

    I recommend whatever you do with your two days that you be mindful of transit times when putting together your itinerary. From my own experiences over the years and the reflections of friends who have visited from overseas, trying to tie a single day together that involves visits to vastly different areas almost always ends up eating up more time than expected. With that said…

    For kitchen equipment, Kappabashi in the Asakusa area comes to mind:

    https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3020.html

    Good food is absolutely everywhere. It really depends what kind of food you are looking for. If you want to challenge yourself then here is a map with the locations of all the restaurants from the TV show Lonely Gourmet:

    https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=18Z5I1BvA8IxRp5s3h_rvL_TsXMC-2og8&ll=38.223828707013425%2C135.43802556530642&z=6

    If you just like shopping in general then going to a branch of Loft or Tokyu Hands will definitely scratch that itch.

    Enjoy your trip!

    9 votes
  12. Comment on ‘Star Wars’ “looks terrible” in screening of long lost original 1977 version in ~movies

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    I haven’t watched Episode 4 in years, but I’d imagine my home’s copied VHS from the early ‘80s is still how I’d prefer to watch it. When the ‘97 VHS versions came along I remember buying them and...

    I haven’t watched Episode 4 in years, but I’d imagine my home’s copied VHS from the early ‘80s is still how I’d prefer to watch it. When the ‘97 VHS versions came along I remember buying them and being disappointed with the special effects changes they had made. This thread has really got me wondering where my old VHS came from.

    3 votes
  13. Comment on Donald Trump deploys Marines to Los Angeles in ~society

    DesktopMonitor
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    Every current or former serviceman I’ve ever spoken with or read the opinion of on this matter has made it pretty clear that their work is projecting American force around the world and not...

    Every current or former serviceman I’ve ever spoken with or read the opinion of on this matter has made it pretty clear that their work is projecting American force around the world and not policing the homeland. I’d imagine they would be quite reserved knowing that a single death or controversial mishap could trigger an actual armed civil conflict. No one in their right mind wants that.

    Edit: deleted the shade I threw at police because it’s too serious a matter and I have friends that are cops and are not the kinds of people to shoot civilians just because they’ve picked up an electric scooter and look likely to throw it at something.

    16 votes
  14. Comment on They don’t read very well: A study of the reading comprehension skills of English majors at two midwestern universities in ~humanities.languages

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    I would refer to them as multilingual. There is no hard and fast rule, but I would say that anyone with at least a CEFR B1~B2 command of more than one language could begin to refer to themselves...

    I would refer to them as multilingual. There is no hard and fast rule, but I would say that anyone with at least a CEFR B1~B2 command of more than one language could begin to refer to themselves as multilingual. There is no equality across language domains inherent in the term multilingual. In fact, I'm happy to say that the very moments you are celebrating in your comment above underlie some of the core motivations behind the development of multilingual theory! I will include some open access links below. No offense or attack was meant by my above comment!!

    May, S. (Ed.). (2013). The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education. Routledge.
    https://www.academia.edu/download/71972752/Anastassia_Zabrodskaja.pdf

    Meier, G. S. (2017). The multilingual turn as a critical movement in education: Assumptions, challenges and a need for reflection. Applied Linguistics Review, 8(1), 131-161.
    https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2016-2010/pdf

    Cenoz, J. (2019). Translanguaging pedagogies and English as a lingua franca. Language Teaching, 52(1), 71-85. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C684EE2F715747B35F9565761257CA74/S0261444817000246a.pdf/translanguaging_pedagogies_and_english_as_a_lingua_franca.pdf

  15. Comment on They don’t read very well: A study of the reading comprehension skills of English majors at two midwestern universities in ~humanities.languages

    DesktopMonitor
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    Absolutely true. It is also true that manner and extent to which one uses idiomatic language is a result of personal circumstances that are highly variable among individual speakers. We can find...

    Absolutely true. It is also true that manner and extent to which one uses idiomatic language is a result of personal circumstances that are highly variable among individual speakers. We can find this variance acknowledged at least as far back as Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik’s absolutely massive 1985 ‘A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language’. Anyone who gets a chance should read through the introduction of that book. It is well worth it!

    Anyhow, the point I intend to make is that description of a linguistic event, rather than labeling a person with an initialism originally used to describe a school subject in which pupils tend to feel ostracized from their peer group due to differences in their upbringing landing them there, is a more useful and accurate means by which to describe the circumstances behind an observation such as the one mentioned in the comment above.

    Note: I would like to reassure anyone reading this that the strength of my convictions *is aimed squarely at the topic under discussion and absolutely not at any commenter.

    3 votes
  16. Comment on They don’t read very well: A study of the reading comprehension skills of English majors at two midwestern universities in ~humanities.languages

    DesktopMonitor
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    Multilinguals’ use of all their languages changes over time according to complex individual circumstances. What is being described above is an event in which a third party observed the influence...

    Multilinguals’ use of all their languages changes over time according to complex individual circumstances. What is being described above is an event in which a third party observed the influence of one or more other languages on someone’s English output.

    Referring to someone as ‘an ESL’ is an act of labeling and it’s best avoided because it prescribes a static identity instead of handling objective description of an event. In other words, to answer the question of ‘what would you call such a person?’ I would answer that I just wouldn’t.

    Thinking about it from my own experiences, when I notice that my Japanese is influencing my English I simply think of it like that. When someone else notices that my English has influenced my Japanese they might say it was 「英語っぽい」or ‘English-sounding’.

    2 votes
  17. Comment on They don’t read very well: A study of the reading comprehension skills of English majors at two midwestern universities in ~humanities.languages

    DesktopMonitor
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    I would like to suggest referring to such people as multilingual.

    I love reading writing by folks who are ESL

    I would like to suggest referring to such people as multilingual.

    4 votes
  18. Comment on What a $15,000 electric SUV says about US-China car rivalry in ~transport

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    What it says to consumers in Japan like me is that Toyota would rather offer us this same car with a one liter turbo for about $1,600 less… even though selling it here for $15,000 would undercut...

    What it says to consumers in Japan like me is that Toyota would rather offer us this same car with a one liter turbo for about $1,600 less… even though selling it here for $15,000 would undercut the economy electric cars offered by its competitors by like $7-8k. Ugh.

    7 votes
  19. Comment on When can we call this a dictatorship? in ~society

    DesktopMonitor
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    You do you! That’s why I hedged my comment. Anyway, it’s a great article if you’ve not read it. Written by some authoritative academic voices. …I swear the pun was an accident.

    You do you! That’s why I hedged my comment. Anyway, it’s a great article if you’ve not read it. Written by some authoritative academic voices.

    …I swear the pun was an accident.

    1 vote
  20. Comment on When can we call this a dictatorship? in ~society