dustylungs's recent activity

  1. Comment on Study: essay graders rarely detect AI, give higher grades in ~tech

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Honestly, I was very tempted to call the teacher myself and ask if that's what she was expecting.

    Honestly, I was very tempted to call the teacher myself and ask if that's what she was expecting.

    9 votes

  2. Comment on Study: essay graders rarely detect AI, give higher grades in ~tech

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    My high school sophomore daughter is taking a college English class outside of school and has had a similar same experience. I literally watched her write an essay (in the form of reviewing her...

    My high school sophomore daughter is taking a college English class outside of school and has had a similar same experience. I literally watched her write an essay (in the form of reviewing her drafts at many stages of writing) and know she didn't use any AI. Her teacher, however, gave her a zero and said her essay was flagged by an AI checker as appearing to have a high percentage chance of having been written by AI. My daughter then ran the essay through every AI checker she could find and saw a wide variety of high and low scores. When she talked to the teacher about this, the teacher's response was only, "you can tell me that you are not using AI to write your essay, but how do I know that?" She went on to tell her that she should use AI checkers for future assignments to make sure her submitted assignments don't appear as AI-assisted. So my daughter's writing style (for this class at least) is now adapting to the fickle selective pressures of a gauntlet of AI checkers.

    26 votes

  3. Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Thanks. I will definitely be experimenting with this. I have a thing with pancakes and a new way to do pancakes is always interesting. I’ve also had my eyes on Japanese soufflés for some time too....

    Thanks. I will definitely be experimenting with this. I have a thing with pancakes and a new way to do pancakes is always interesting. I’ve also had my eyes on Japanese soufflés for some time too. I’m getting hungry just writing this reply.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Good point, I’ll do that. Did you mean to tag it rather than label? I have seen labels for Malice, Exemplary, etc but I don’t think I’ve seen one for Satire. (And if there isn’t a Satire label, I...

    Good point, I’ll do that. Did you mean to tag it rather than label? I have seen labels for Malice, Exemplary, etc but I don’t think I’ve seen one for Satire. (And if there isn’t a Satire label, I may petition for one.)

  5. Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    I started wondering if I was dating myself by choosing a song so old that nobody knows it anymore.

    I started wondering if I was dating myself by choosing a song so old that nobody knows it anymore.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Can you elaborate on the pancake option? I have a Zojirushi rice cooker and if I’ve missed the ability to make pancakes with it, I’m going to make up for that lost time really fast.

    Can you elaborate on the pancake option? I have a Zojirushi rice cooker and if I’ve missed the ability to make pancakes with it, I’m going to make up for that lost time really fast.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Apparently my attempt at satire is a failure. Shucks.

    Apparently my attempt at satire is a failure. Shucks.

    11 votes

  8. Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport

    dustylungs
    Link
    That’s great It starts with buzzing noise, blinking lights A quadcopter Donald Trump is not afraid Off the coast mothership, enemy’s microchip Big Apple oh me, and above New Jersey Watch it on the...

    That’s great
    It starts with buzzing noise, blinking lights
    A quadcopter
    Donald Trump is not afraid

    Off the coast mothership, enemy’s microchip
    Big Apple oh me, and above New Jersey
    Watch it on the Fox, or C. N. N.
    The twitter starts to jitter with posts and re-posts
    Big like cars! Crying, Spreading ma-ni-a
    And the government is quiet, and the Pent-a-gon

    […]

    Put another way: Mysterious automobile-sized drones spotted above New York, New Jersey and other states over the past few weeks. State government lawmakers don't know what is going on. The drones might be coming from an Iranian mothership off the coast. The FBI is involved but the Pentagon is mum. Nobody who knows is talking. Mania is spreading. Holy moly, man woman and child, what is happening?

    But in all seriousness, ignoring the mainstream and social media foofaraw, what do you think is really happening?

    9 votes

  10. Comment on What’s your “I didn’t know I needed that” item? in ~life

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    I got a 12-hour one on sale for about $13 recently and I think they're around $20 normally. And I think the 6-hour ones are round $13 regular price.

    I got a 12-hour one on sale for about $13 recently and I think they're around $20 normally. And I think the 6-hour ones are round $13 regular price.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on What’s your “I didn’t know I needed that” item? in ~life

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    I have had a few Zippo hand warmers for years now and absolutely love them. But as the electric hand warmers have become more common I've wondered if they're worth looking into. The nice thing...

    I have had a few Zippo hand warmers for years now and absolutely love them. But as the electric hand warmers have become more common I've wondered if they're worth looking into. The nice thing with at least one of my Zippos is that it will stay very warm for around 12 hours. I'm definitely going to start looking into electric hand warmers though because the use of lighter fluid seems inefficient and is probably more costly in the end.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on What’s your “I didn’t know I needed that” item? in ~life

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    Similar to, or maybe a companion to, the towel warmer is a space heater for the bathroom. That gets a lot of use during winters at my house.

    Similar to, or maybe a companion to, the towel warmer is a space heater for the bathroom. That gets a lot of use during winters at my house.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Formaldehyde causes more cancer than any other toxic air pollutant. Little is being done to curb the risk. in ~health

    dustylungs
    Link
    Hopefully my comment won’t be too tangential. If you think reporting like in this article is important, remember that today is “Giving Tuesday” and your donation to ProPublica will be doubled today.

    Hopefully my comment won’t be too tangential. If you think reporting like in this article is important, remember that today is “Giving Tuesday” and your donation to ProPublica will be doubled today.

    ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

    11 votes

  14. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    A solution of hot water and citric acid will break down mineral build up on plumbing fixtures, teapots, or other kitchen appliances.

    can you explain the descaling plumbing / appaliances?

    A solution of hot water and citric acid will break down mineral build up on plumbing fixtures, teapots, or other kitchen appliances.

    8 votes

  15. What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them?

    ~life.home_improvement Ask (survey)
    I've always found this to be a fun conversation topic among geeky, mechanically-inclined, or DIY-enthusiast friends, and it might be interesting to what see bubbles up from the Tildes crowd: Other...

    I've always found this to be a fun conversation topic among geeky, mechanically-inclined, or DIY-enthusiast friends, and it might be interesting to what see bubbles up from the Tildes crowd:

    Other than standard things like dishwasher detergent or window cleaning spray, what chemicals or other substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? And if you need to take any special precautions for storage, use or disposal, what are those precautions?

    Mine are not actually all that interesting, but I'll start:

    • Powdered citric acid - for descaling plumbing or kitchen appliances
    • Acetone - cleaning gunk off of all sorts of tools, labels off glass items, etc.
    • WD40 - cleaning greasy car or bicycle parts
    • Glycerin - making "fog juice" for a fog machine
    30 votes

  16. Comment on A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet rather than hieroglyphs or cuneiform in ~humanities.languages

    dustylungs
    Link
    I couldn’t read that article because I don’t have a subscription. If anyone else wants a quick jump to the news, here’s an article I found from the Hopkins Hub:...

    I couldn’t read that article because I don’t have a subscription. If anyone else wants a quick jump to the news, here’s an article I found from the Hopkins Hub: https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/11/21/ancient-alphabet-discovered-syria/

    The writing, which is dated to around 2400 BCE, precedes other known alphabetic scripts by roughly 500 years, upending what archaeologists know about where alphabets came from, how they are shared across societies, and what that could mean for early urban civilizations, according to the researchers.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on Undersea telecom cable between Lithuania and Sweden damaged in ~tech

    dustylungs
    Link Parent
    I was curious about that too and had to look it up. Turns out it’s conceptually as simple as fixing an electric wire you’ve accidentally drilled through behind a wall: get access to the...

    I was curious about that too and had to look it up. Turns out it’s conceptually as simple as fixing an electric wire you’ve accidentally drilled through behind a wall: get access to the wire/cable, splice it, test it, and put everything back where it was. In the case of a deep sea cable, a boat positions itself above the break, pulls the cable up with a grapnel, splices it, tests it, and lowers it back into the sea.

    14 votes