kroket's recent activity

  1. Comment on Looking at getting a new phone - help with my odd requirements? in ~tech

    kroket
    Link Parent
    No worries. Perhaps it's something for the topic starter to consider if they are concerned about security update support.

    No worries. Perhaps it's something for the topic starter to consider if they are concerned about security update support.

  2. Comment on Looking at getting a new phone - help with my odd requirements? in ~tech

    kroket
    Link Parent
    Has Motorola improved their security update support lately? They used to only provide security updates for 2-3 years tops for their flagship models. Which is unfortunate because the Motorola...

    Has Motorola improved their security update support lately? They used to only provide security updates for 2-3 years tops for their flagship models. Which is unfortunate because the Motorola android version is very nice and minimalist, and their phones are decently priced usually.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on No more phone number swaps: Signal messaging app now testing usernames in ~tech

    kroket
    Link
    I appreciate that Signal keeps being committed to making a privacy friendly messaging app. Now if only more people were willing to start using it.

    "Encrypted messaging service Signal is now testing usernames, which will offer people a more private way to share their contact details on the app.
    The development is a big deal since Signal—an end-to-end encrypted messaging app—has long required users to sign up with a phone number. That same number also needs to be shared in order to message other users on the app.
    This can be problematic since sharing your phone number exposes you to privacy and hacking risks. For example, a contact on Signal could choose to call and message your number over an unencrypted cellular network or pass off the number to someone else. "

    I appreciate that Signal keeps being committed to making a privacy friendly messaging app. Now if only more people were willing to start using it.

    24 votes

  5. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    kroket
    Link
    Blue eye samurai (Netflix) was an unexpected masterpiece for me. The writing, animation, art style and voice acting were all fantastic. Its definitely intended for mature audiences, with plenty of...

    Blue eye samurai (Netflix) was an unexpected masterpiece for me. The writing, animation, art style and voice acting were all fantastic. Its definitely intended for mature audiences, with plenty of gore, nudity and sex, but with a compelling story above all.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Mean Girls | Official trailer in ~movies

    kroket
    Link
    The trailer doesn't make this clear, but if I understand correctly this is not a remake of the movie, but a movie adaptation of the Mean Girls Broadway musical. As someone who really likes the...

    The trailer doesn't make this clear, but if I understand correctly this is not a remake of the movie, but a movie adaptation of the Mean Girls Broadway musical. As someone who really likes the original movie, and hasn't seen the musical, this probably isn't for me but perhaps it'll be popular among the fans of the Broadway show.

    11 votes

  7. Comment on First images of ESA-telescope 'Euclid' in ~space

    kroket
    Link
    Stunning first images of ESA's telescope 'Euclid', which has the capacity to create unbelievably sharp and detailed images across a large part of the sky. Over the next years Euclid's mission is...

    Stunning first images of ESA's telescope 'Euclid', which has the capacity to create unbelievably sharp and detailed images across a large part of the sky. Over the next years Euclid's mission is to investigate how dark matter and dark energy have made our Universe look like it does today.

    Summary of the article:

    "Today, ESA’s Euclid space mission reveals its first full-colour images of the cosmos. Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe. These five images illustrate Euclid's full potential; they show that the telescope is ready to create the most extensive 3D map of the Universe yet, to uncover some of its hidden secrets."

    3 votes

  9. Comment on John Oliver backs ‘weird, puking’ pūteketeke as he takes New Zealand’s bird of century poll global in ~tv

    kroket
    Link
    John Oliver has started a campaign for New Zealand's "Bird of the century" competition. Since anyone in the world can vote in this competition, his show has put out billboards all over the world...

    John Oliver has started a campaign for New Zealand's "Bird of the century" competition. Since anyone in the world can vote in this competition, his show has put out billboards all over the world to promote the Pūteketeke, the endangered bird of New Zealand that John Oliver is campaigning for. Just some delightful silliness for a worthy cause, if you ask me.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on The genetic heritage of the Denisovans may have left its mark on our mental health in ~science

    kroket
    Link
    Very interesting research on the modern-day effects of interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Denisovans that happened thousands of years ago. In short, Homo sapiens interbred with Denisovans...

    Very interesting research on the modern-day effects of interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Denisovans that happened thousands of years ago.

    In short, Homo sapiens interbred with Denisovans thousands of years ago, which has left modern humans with traces of Denisovan DNA. The Denisovan DNA may have given humans a possible advantage in dealing with cold, but in turn may also have predisposed modern humans to psychiatric disorders because of its involvement in zinc regulation and its role in cellular metabolism.

    11 votes

  13. Comment on Long presumed to have no heads at all, sea stars may be nothing but in ~science

    kroket
    Link
    Seeing sea stars described as "just a head crawling along the seafloor" has given me a new perspective on these animals. A summary:

    Seeing sea stars described as "just a head crawling along the seafloor" has given me a new perspective on these animals.

    A summary:

    For centuries, naturalists have puzzled over what might constitute the head of a sea star, commonly called a “starfish.”

    The research, published Nov. 1 in Nature, suggests that, far from being headless, over evolutionary time sea stars lost their bodies to become only heads.

    The researchers found that neither of the prominent hypotheses of sea star body plan structure was correct. Instead, they saw that gene expression corresponding to the forebrain in humans and other bilaterally symmetrical animals was located along the midline of sea stars’ arms, with genetic expression corresponding to that of the human midbrain towards the arms’ outer edges. While the genes marking different subregions of the head in humans and other bilaterians were expressed in the sea star, only one of the genes typically associated with the trunk in animals was expressed, at the very edges of the sea stars’ arms.

    “It’s as if the sea star is completely missing a trunk, and is best described as just a head crawling along the seafloor,” said Laurent Formery, a Biohub-funded postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the new study. “It’s not at all what scientists have assumed about these animals.”

    12 votes

  15. Comment on Earth is hiding another planet deep inside in ~space

    kroket
    Link
    Interesting new research about the Earth's collision with protoplanet Theia (maybe better known as the Giant Impact Hypotheses). A summary of the article:

    Interesting new research about the Earth's collision with protoplanet Theia (maybe better known as the Giant Impact Hypotheses).

    A summary of the article:

    Earth’s early history is marked by massive collisions with other objects, including planetesimals. One of the defining events in our planet’s history, the formation of the Moon, likely resulted from one of these catastrophic collisions when a Mars-sized protoplanet crashed into Earth. That’s the Giant Impact Hypothesis, and it explains how the collision produced a torus of debris rotating around the Earth that eventually coalesced into our only natural satellite.

    New research strengthens the idea that Theia left some of its remains inside Earth.

    Back in the 1980s, scientists made a remarkable discovery. Two gigantic, continent-sized blobs were embedded deep in the Earth. One is under Africa, and one is under the Pacific Ocean. They’re called LLSVPs, or Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces, and they have unusually high iron levels. The iron concentration changes the speed of seismic waves that travel through them, leading to their discovery.

    Now, new research points convincingly at the Giant Impact as the LLSVP’s source. The new paper is “Moon-forming impactor as a source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies.” It’s in the journal Nature, and the lead author is Qian Yuan, a Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory.

    14 votes

  17. Comment on Rats have an imagination, new research finds in ~science

    kroket
    Link
    Some interesting highlights from the article:

    Some interesting highlights from the article:

    "They found that, like humans, animals can think about places and objects that aren't right in front of them, using their thoughts to imagine walking to a location or moving a remote object to a specific spot."

    "This ability to imagine locations away from one's current position is fundamental to remembering past events and imagining possible future scenarios. Therefore, the new work shows that animals, like humans, possess a form of imagination, according to the study's authors."

    "This thought process is something humans experience regularly. For example, when we're asked to pick up groceries at a familiar store, we might imagine the locations we will pass along the way before we ever leave the house."

    "The team found that rats can precisely and flexibly control their hippocampal activity, in the same way humans likely do. The animals are also able to sustain this hippocampal activity, holding their thoughts on a given location for many seconds—a timeframe similar to the one at which humans relive past events or imagine new scenarios."

    18 votes

  19. Comment on What is your favourite cutscene/cinematic in any game? in ~games

    kroket
    Link
    The Baldur's Gate 3 intro cinematic really blew my mind when I saw it. I've always been a "patient gamer", I don't often buy the latest games. So whenever I play a game the graphics are usually...

    The Baldur's Gate 3 intro cinematic really blew my mind when I saw it. I've always been a "patient gamer", I don't often buy the latest games. So whenever I play a game the graphics are usually already a bit outdated and not very impressive. But I started following the development of BG3, and when I saw this intro it looked so cool, I felt it should be movie. I don't know how BG3's CGI compares to other modern games, but to me this looks absolutely amazing!

    10 votes

  20. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tv

    kroket
    Link Parent
    It's the same for me with the characters, I'd keep imagining the show characters even if they're different in the book, so it's probably a good idea to start with the books. Good to know that...

    It's the same for me with the characters, I'd keep imagining the show characters even if they're different in the book, so it's probably a good idea to start with the books. Good to know that there are some significant differences between the book and the show, that will probably make it interesting enough to read and watch both. I'm not entirely sure which of the books are covered in the show's first season, but I've picked up the first act of the book series (Wool), so I'm going to read those first! Thank you!

    1 vote