Kuromantis's recent activity
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 22 in ~news
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
Kuromantis Link ParentYeah, this has a good chance of being a chaotic moment for America's legal systems. The people I follow defend that, since Biden was not officially nominated and no ballots have been printed...Yeah, this has a good chance of being a chaotic moment for America's legal systems. The people I follow defend that, since Biden was not officially nominated and no ballots have been printed everything will be fine, but Republicans will definitely want to force him back on the ballot, and we don't really expect the Supreme Court to not oblige after the immunity ruling if it comes to it. I personally believe that if they can simply disallow Kamala or whoever from the ballot, then they may as well turn the USA to a one-party state.
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
Kuromantis (edited )LinkImmediate commentary: UPDATE: Joe Biden has endorsed her as Democratic nominee for president. Over the last few hours, this has been followed by both Clintons, the Congressional Black Caucus, the...Immediate commentary:
- He did not announce that Kamala (or anyone) will already replace him for president, but he did mention her partnership with him on the note.UPDATE: Joe Biden has endorsed her as Democratic nominee for president. Over the last few hours, this has been followed by both Clintons, the Congressional Black Caucus, the progressive Caucus and many Democratic senators, congressmembers, speculated Harris veeps and more. Notably, Obama has been inconclusive in his medium statement, saying that he has "extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges."
SECOND UPDATE: Within 24 hours, Harris has received the endorsements of something around 75% of Democratic legislators from both house and Senate according to an endorsement tracker of her online and the delegates of about a quarter of the convention already, and ActBlue registered nearly 100 million dollars donated to what is now her campaign, the party has readily ralllied around her. Outside the party, Romney and Pence have said they "respected his decision to drop out."
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I'm surprised Twitter is still so relevant for politicians to post official announcements, despite everything Musk has done to it.
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I genuinely hope the chaos the Democratic party was in for the past 3 weeks never repeats itself again.
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US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election
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Comment on Maps distort how we see the world in ~science
Kuromantis (edited )Link ParentThe Mercator projection in particular is useful because it has this feature called conformality, meaning that, at medium-small scales, it preserves shapes and angles perfectly and you cannot do...The Mercator projection in particular is useful because it has this feature called conformality, meaning that, at medium-small scales, it preserves shapes and angles perfectly and you cannot do that and also preserve area. This is so important for Google Maps because it means that, when you zoom into your city (or *any* city in the world map) right angles look like right angles and cities and states aren't slanted. Someone made a zoomable version of the Goode Homolosine projection and if you zoom into certain cities like Tokyo or Anchorage you will see the map is nearly unusable because everything is so slanted. Because it is a conformal map, Mercator prevents this while also being cylindrical, meaning that the cardinal directions are the same everywhere and that the projection is overall rectangular, meaning that you can simply put a mercator world map next to itself and have it seamlessly transition from one side of the world to another, thus making it very good for navigation.
That being said, I think people's use of Google maps gives people the impression that Mercator is the only map that people ever use which I think is grossly exaggerated, people use/see Robinson, Equirectangular, Mollweide, Azimuthal (UN-like) and Conic maps just as, if not more often than Mercator, although basically all maps that aren't explicitly equal-area like Mollweide expand areas further from the equator, which turns out to just be the global north and antarctica.
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Comment on Maps distort how we see the world in ~science
Kuromantis Link2 (other) sites I would recommend for viewing various types of map projections and how/what they distort are map-projections.net for looking at and comparing a lot of different maps and Jason...2 (other) sites I would recommend for viewing various types of map projections and how/what they distort are map-projections.net for looking at and comparing a lot of different maps and Jason Davies' Map Projection Transitions for interactivity. For viewing Mercator and Area+Length distortion, I think map-projection's Mercator vs Mollweide and Mercator vs Sinusoidal are the best way to see the extent of Mercator's distortion in these aspects, and also to see what the world even looks like when you make a map that translates land area to map area precisely. I think the most striking comparisons are by looking at the map comparisons where the projections are scaled to be equally wide, the Mercator projection is roughly square, while most equivalent map projections are around twice as tall as they are wide while also being widest at the equator and tapering off towards the poles, meaning that, when the equator is kept at constant scale, the mercator map is overall much bigger than the equal-area maps despite being very similar to them near the equator, with all that extra area going to more poleward locations and the countries located there.
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Comment on Kerbal Space Program 2 development history in ~games
Kuromantis (edited )LinkThe big takeaway I got from this is basically: Take Two gave Star Theory a budget of 2 years and 10 million dollars to make KSP 2 and Star Theory agreed with this offer assuming they were just...The big takeaway I got from this is basically:
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Take Two gave Star Theory a budget of 2 years and 10 million dollars to make KSP 2 and Star Theory agreed with this offer assuming they were just going to re-do KSP with less technical debt, better graphics and some more features, which is the kind of project Take-Two already had in mind and based this budget off of anyway
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Nate Simpson (the guy in Star Theory studios who heard this and decided to take charge of the project) was a true fan of KSP (which really contrasts with the popular portrayal of him as basically the bad guy) and instead proposed an enormous reimagining of KSP with colonies, interstellar, multiplayer and all the features we saw in trailers over the years and convinced Star Theory that pursuing this grandiose vision was worth it
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Take Two refused to change the budget to match the scale of Nate's dream and thus forced everyone who worked in the project to act like they were still developing an improved version of KSP 1 to the point of forcing everyone to reuse much of KSP 1's source code (while also forcing them to stay away from everyone who made said code)
And basically the effect was that the developers (many of whom just came to work on a project they couldn't know anything about) couldn't meet all these contradictory demands (and Nate Simpson is an artist at heart and all the physics and math and whatnot that goes into a space game just wasn't really what he wanted to expand upon in the game unlike graphics and lore and visuals) and made a mess of a game.
One thing I fond worth noting I that lots of people said they didn't want KSP 2 to just be a glamorized version of KSP which would be basically equivalent to KSP with some graphics and they were happy with Nate's expanded vision of the new game because it meant KSP 2 would be meaningfully larger then KSP 1. This basically makes it clear that KSP 2 was supposed to be exactly the type of cash grab they were afraid of and Take 2 did everything it could to keep KSP 2 in line with that original plan but Nate insisted on his dream and the worst of both worlds came true.
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Comment on New moons of Uranus and Neptune announced in ~space
Kuromantis LinkThis new faint neptunian moon in particular claims the new spot of most distant moon with the longest orbital period from it's planet in the whole solar system, beating Neso to this accolade.Washington, D.C.— The Solar System has some new lunar members—the first new moon of Uranus discovered in more than 20 years, and likely the smallest, as well as two new moons of Neptune, one of which is the faintest moon ever discovered by ground-based telescopes. The discoveries were announced today by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.
The new Uranian member brings the ice giant planet’s total moon count to 28. At only 8 kilometers, it is probably the smallest of Uranus’ moons. It takes 680 days to orbit the planet. Provisionally named S/2023 U1, the new moon will eventually be named after a character from a Shakespeare play, in keeping with the naming conventions for outer Uranian satellites.
The brighter Neptune moon now has a provisional designation S/2002 N5, is about 23 kilometers in size, and takes almost 9 years to orbit the ice giant. The fainter Neptune moon has a provisional designation S/2021 N1 and is about 14 kilometers with an orbit of almost 27 years. They will both receive permanent names based on the 50 Nereid sea goddesses in Greek mythology.
This new faint neptunian moon in particular claims the new spot of most distant moon with the longest orbital period from it's planet in the whole solar system, beating Neso to this accolade.
Discovering all three of the new moons required taking dozens of five-minute exposures over three- or four-hour periods on a series of nights. These exposures were shifted by the apparent motion of each respective planet and added together to create one very deep image. Using this time intensive observing technique on some of the largest telescopes in the world allowed the survey images to go deeper than any previous observations near Uranus and Neptune.
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New moons of Uranus and Neptune announced
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shī shì shí shī shǐ - Story of Stone Grotto Poet
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Comment on Kyoto Animation arsonist given death penalty over 2019 mass murder in ~anime
Kuromantis LinkI remember this attack being a really big deal when it happened, seeing it be resolved, even with Death, is a big deal.I remember this attack being a really big deal when it happened, seeing it be resolved, even with Death, is a big deal.
Shinji Aoba was handed the death penalty on Thursday for setting a Kyoto Animation studio on fire in 2019 and killing 36 people, in one of Japan’s deadliest mass murders.
The Kyoto District Court found the 45-year-old man guilty of setting the three-story building on fire because of a grudge he had against Kyoto Animation. He claimed the studio had stolen his ideas after it rejected his novels in an annual contest the company hosts. There is no evidence the company plagiarized any of his work.On July 18, 2019, Aoba bought 40 liters of gasoline, after which he entered the Kyoto Animation studio, splashed gasoline on six workers while shouting “Go to hell!” and set the building on fire with a lighter. The fire engulfed the building, killing 36 people and leaving another 32 injured.
A survivor who had testified in court said she escaped from a window after she was splashed with gasoline. She sustained burns over 94% of her body and had to undergo surgery 49 times.
"I feel despair whenever I look in the mirror. It's grueling to live with this body," she said.
Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta said in a statement afterward that although he thought the ruling was appropriate, his feelings of frustration remain strong.
Nevertheless, Hatta said he hopes to continue making anime at Kyoto Animation so that the works of the victims will be passed on into the future.
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Kyoto Animation arsonist given death penalty over 2019 mass murder
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Comment on So, is Dash a good level? (Geometry Dash, 2.2) in ~games
Kuromantis LinkGeometry Dash released it's largest update that took 7 years to make, and the newest level has to show off all the features added in this massive, and yet short level. The video being 40 minutes...Geometry Dash released it's largest update that took 7 years to make, and the newest level has to show off all the features added in this massive, and yet short level. The video being 40 minutes long when the level is only a minute and a half, especially when there's a "spider" section that this guy has spent several minutes complaining about in not one but two videos including this one, which only lasts a second or so, which has basically become a meme with people constantly remaking this section online. Despite the meme having kind of a mocking aura to it, I think Colon's criticisms are completely reasonable and the footage he has of multiple youtubers including pro GD players struggling at this section multiple times prove that spider section is in fact actually troublesome level design.
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So, is Dash a good level? (Geometry Dash, 2.2)
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Comment on Don't look so blue, Neptune: New study (re)reveals Neptune's blue hue to be very pale and similar to Uranus, unlike edited Voyager 2 images in ~space
Kuromantis LinkFor good measure, here is a link to the actual text of the study, including a few more pictures through various levels of correction from other comparable sources, namely hubble. Particularly...In 1989, Voyager 2 became the first and only spacecraft to ever fly by Neptune, and images from that mission famously show a planet that's a deep azure color.
But in reality, Neptune is far more of a light greenish blue. It's actually pretty similar in color to its fellow ice giant Uranus, also visited by Voyager 2.
The researchers rebalanced composite color images taken by the Voyager 2 camera, using data from instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
The resulting images more accurately reflect the true colors of these planets, says Irwin, as they'd be seen by the naked eye.
As a result, some of the key features of Neptune, such as cloud bands and a dark spot, become "indistinct and difficult to see," he says, noting that the Voyager team deliberately processed its images in a way that would highlight the unusual features of this planet.
For good measure, here is a link to the actual text of the study, including a few more pictures through various levels of correction from other comparable sources, namely hubble. Particularly pertinent is this spectral chart of the 2 planets, which are extremely similar but do in fact indicate that Neptune is ever so slightly more blue.
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Don't look so blue, Neptune: New study (re)reveals Neptune's blue hue to be very pale and similar to Uranus, unlike edited Voyager 2 images
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Comment on 31 minutos - Calurosa Navidad (Heated Christmas) (2004) in ~music
Kuromantis LinkA funny Christmas song for anyone who lives near the equator or in the Southern hemisphere, where summer has just began and snow is alien. I'm typing this from right besides my fan here in São...A funny Christmas song for anyone who lives near the equator or in the Southern hemisphere, where summer has just began and snow is alien. I'm typing this from right besides my fan here in São Paulo. English subtitles included.
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31 minutos - Calurosa Navidad (Heated Christmas) (2004)
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Comment on In Cold War II, the US risks playing the Soviet role in ~misc
Kuromantis (edited )LinkHonestly, I think that it's just really obvious/blatant that this guy wants to project the past into the present for the sake of it, because the idea of playing a "Soviet role" doesn't make much...- Exemplary
Honestly, I think that it's just really obvious/blatant that this guy wants to project the past into the present for the sake of it, because the idea of playing a "Soviet role" doesn't make much sense beyond being an old power with slow economic growth and a smaller population, and the geography of a new cold war is fundamentally different and taking place in a fundamentally different world. Above all else, a world not born out of harsh ideological war partitioning the world, but of capitalism managing to sustain itself beyond communism thanks to globalization, less extreme authoritarianism and not screwing up planned economies, and then absorbing the second world into itself with globalization, a far less violent beginning (though that isn't much by the standards of peace.)
But talking about how the 2 nations actually are and where they might want to go, I get the impression that the USA and China share something like 60-80% of their economic defects (expensive and questionable housing, overworked people who don't feel like having children, discontented young people without a clear path to wealth beyond decades of waiting) and their strengths are far more important to discuss than weaknesses. And personally, I think it's very self-evident that the USA, even when US politics break down completely, can basically manage to run on autopilot as the federal government just casually takes a 2-week-long break from working on the whim of conservative politicians because something like a million people immigrate to the USA every single year, a figure which has been growing to this value for the last 50-60 years (since 1965 due to LBJ) and the appeal of the USA for most of these people is basically working for a huge multinational or Silicon Valley tech company, regardless of if the government is actually functioning or not, and this massive influx basically keeps the US (well, the parts with said immigrants) away from population decline, and inevitably that is just pure soft power and economic status as the incumbent power. China's strength is that it builds much more infrastructure and is the factory of the world, but inevitably it becomes fairly obvious that this role is very dependent on free trade and the US being incapable of gathering the political/economic will to break up fully as idealized by protectionists and trade war supporters which it definitely is, don't get me wrong, but manufacturing things for the immense US consumer market doesn't lend itself to harshly opposing and fighting against America, and they seem to be distressingly near having built all the infrastructure they would ever need and then enough for the several ghost cities we hear about in the west, which is one of the many fronts where we suspect China could be inflating their GDP and other economic figures to us and themselves.
I think that the role of the US is basically to just keep being the incumbent and soft power and keep using brain drain and immigration to keep economic power to itself and away from China while China's role is basically to seek alternate pathways to economic power such as dedollarization, the new silk road and investing in Africa, which they have already been doing. Most importantly for the article though, neither of these paths involves splitting the world in 2 in a decades-long ideological conflict, especially when China as an "Arsenal of Autocracy" isn't super helpful since when you look at the relationships that these autocratic old world societies that oppose the US (China, North Korea, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, etc.) hold with eachother, you don't actually see that much in the way of actual amicableness, if anything the constant need to grandstand against their enemies makes these autocracies want to convey an image of being on their own against the USA, which does not bode well with the grandiose image of a neo-warsaw-pact of authoritarians of all ideologies.
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Comment on Despite it still being spring in Brazil, temperatures reach 35-40 degrees Celsius almost every day in dangerous heatwave in ~enviro
Kuromantis LinkA personal comment from someone who lives in São Paulo, we already got temperatures of 35 degrees in early October, just a week or 2 removed from Winter. In that heatwave, record numbers of people...It’s still spring in Brazil, but a dangerous heat wave is sweeping across large swathes of the country, forcing Rio de Janeiro’s vendors off the streets due to health alerts and driving up energy demand amid reports of power outages.
The heat index — a combination of temperature and humidity — hit 58.5 degrees Celsius (137 Fahrenheit) Tuesday morning in Rio, the highest index ever recorded there. Actual temperatures dropped slightly on Wednesday, but were forecast to rise again to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) on Thursday.
Amid the high heat, wildfires are burning widely in the Pantanal biome, the world's biggest tropical wetlands spanning parts of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states. The fires have ravaged an area about the size of Cyprus, or more than 947,000 hectares (about 3,600 square miles), according to the Environmental Satellite Applications Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
A personal comment from someone who lives in São Paulo, we already got temperatures of 35 degrees in early October, just a week or 2 removed from Winter. In that heatwave, record numbers of people (including some of my classmates) used the heatwave as a good excuse to go to the beach, but that's pretty much the only silver lining to something that's evidently caused by human industry managing to reach the "turn back within 5 years or else" stage of Climate Change. Europe has been recording 30 degree heat in temperate zones like Germany and 40 degrees in Semi-Arid Spain nearly every summer now. I get the impression that South America is the same and this will be our new normal now, for decades to come.
Within 24 hours, Harris has received the endorsements of something around 75% of Democratic legislators from both house and Senate according to an endorsement tracker of her online and the delegates of about a quarter of the convention already, and ActBlue registered nearly 100 million dollars from small-dollar donations to what is now her campaign, the party has readily ralllied around her. Outside the party, Romney and Pence have appreciated his decision and wished him well.