plutonic's recent activity

  1. Comment on Canadian Blood Services calling for donors amid serious drop in supply in ~health

    plutonic
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    Possibly just a yearly pattern, you would think the article would take a look at that and compare to previous years around this time, but alas, journalism isn't what it used to be.

    “Summer is traditionally a more fragile period for the blood supply. Many regular donors are on vacation or simply forget to book an appointment,” he said.

    Possibly just a yearly pattern, you would think the article would take a look at that and compare to previous years around this time, but alas, journalism isn't what it used to be.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Canadian Blood Services calling for donors amid serious drop in supply in ~health

    plutonic
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    I wonder what caused this drop off in donation all of a sudden, strange. I know locally where I am there is a yearly blood donation campaign by the Sikh Temples "BLOOD DONATION BY SIKH NATION"....

    I wonder what caused this drop off in donation all of a sudden, strange. I know locally where I am there is a yearly blood donation campaign by the Sikh Temples "BLOOD DONATION BY SIKH NATION". Always nice to see a very generous community come together to help their fellow people.

    8 votes

  3. Comment on Canadian Blood Services calling for donors amid serious drop in supply in ~health

    plutonic
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    In Canada we get nothing for donating, no matter what. Doesn't help our supply that's for sure, but I also think there is an interesting debate around paying people for donating, but I tend to...

    In Canada we get nothing for donating, no matter what. Doesn't help our supply that's for sure, but I also think there is an interesting debate around paying people for donating, but I tend to support it.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Critics slam Tim Hortons Harry Potter promotion as un-Canadian, anti-trans in ~food

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    I stopped once they changed the coffee, if I need drive-through coffee now I go to McDonalds, same for their Frappe aka Iced Cap (especially during Summer Drink Days, can't beat those prices).

    I stopped once they changed the coffee, if I need drive-through coffee now I go to McDonalds, same for their Frappe aka Iced Cap (especially during Summer Drink Days, can't beat those prices).

  5. Comment on Critics slam Tim Hortons Harry Potter promotion as un-Canadian, anti-trans in ~food

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    Sounds like you are describing the food and beverage options at Tim Hortons! I can't believe anyone can still stomach that garbage.

    Sad and gross and completely predictable.

    Sounds like you are describing the food and beverage options at Tim Hortons! I can't believe anyone can still stomach that garbage.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on How to write English prose in ~books

    plutonic
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    While this is over the top, it does speak to what I love in English Prose and what I seek out when reading books. I think Rule #9 is my favourite:

    While this is over the top, it does speak to what I love in English Prose and what I seek out when reading books. I think Rule #9 is my favourite:

    1. Never squander an opportunity for verbal cleverness. I once related in print the notorious tale of Schopenhauer throwing an old washerwoman down a flight of stairs, describing him at one point as seizing her by her “wizened weasand.” Self-indulgent, no doubt, but such moments as those make one feel that one has lived to a purpose.
    6 votes

  8. Comment on There is no ‘hard problem of consciousness’ in ~humanities

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    I feel the same about this article, I agree completely that there is no 'soul' separate from the physical human, there is nothing metaphysical going on in our brains, but that doesn't mean you can...

    I feel the same about this article, I agree completely that there is no 'soul' separate from the physical human, there is nothing metaphysical going on in our brains, but that doesn't mean you can just hand wave all the interesting issues surrounding human consciousness and 'hard problem of consciousness' away. There are so many questions that need answering, we know so little about our consciousness, animal consciousness, machine consciousness. It maybe be pointless to keep talking about it because we are all just guessing but I find it really interesting.

    9 votes

  9. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    I really loved the Altered Carbon series, some of the first Sci-Fi books I ever read, Altered Carbon I remember being especially good. I was really interested in Cyberpunk at the time and was...

    I really loved the Altered Carbon series, some of the first Sci-Fi books I ever read, Altered Carbon I remember being especially good. I was really interested in Cyberpunk at the time and was ticking off some of the major works. It has been... 15+ years since I read them but I remember really not liking the gratuitous sex (I hate sex scenes in novels) and Morgan's strange fascination with the word 'cock'.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    plutonic
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    Finished listening to Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs Of A Geisha' Published 1997. Meh, lame. Already said a little about it with my last post, no need to add anymore. Didn't work for me, not even on a...

    Finished listening to Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs Of A Geisha' Published 1997. Meh, lame. Already said a little about it with my last post, no need to add anymore. Didn't work for me, not even on a plot level which was all I was hoping for.

    Well into Patrick White's 'The Solid Mandala' Published 1966. Just finished the first brother's perspective and now moving onto the other brother's which is a much slimmer chunk of the book. Enjoying it a lot, I can see some of myself in the more logical, cold brother (also a lover of literature) and to watch him constantly self-sabotage himself by being a snobby elitist and unable to make human connections due to a superiority complex reminds me (only slightly) of my younger self, but much like Dostoevsky's 'Underground Man' you can see self-parallels but it is ramped up to the Nth degree. The narrative jumps all over the place in time but since there isn't really a traditional plot to follow it doesn't matter and I'm pretty sure you are just meant to soak up these little glimpses of their lives and interactions with people to build a bigger picture of who these 2 brother's are. The end of the first brother's section was shocking and I'm still not sure what to make of it.

    Started listening to William Golding's 'Pincher Martin' Published 1956. William Golding?!? The guy who wrote 'Lord of the Flies' that I was forced to read in Grade 8 and hated? Yes, that William Golding. They awarded him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1983 so there must be some works of his that are great you would hope. 'Pincher Martin' is included in Harold Bloom's Western Cannon so I figured I would give it a shot. The idea is that a lone military sailor falls overboard or somehow ends up in the water lost from his ship, he makes it to a tiny little 'island' or really just some rocks above water. Here he is totally alone in a abyss of open ocean, he has to survive on sea urchins and what fresh water collects in a hole in the rock, we now get to watch his slow decent into madness and insanity. Sounds like my kind of book! Halfway through and the madness is now beginning, wild listening ahead I'm sure.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    Happy to hear you liked 'Middlemarch', it is one of my favourites! The 'Mill on the Floss' is the only other Eliot I've read and I also really enjoyed it but it doesn't have the depth of...

    Happy to hear you liked 'Middlemarch', it is one of my favourites! The 'Mill on the Floss' is the only other Eliot I've read and I also really enjoyed it but it doesn't have the depth of 'Middlemarch'. The rich character development is really what grabbed me too, only topped by Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' which probably has the richest character development of any novel ever written.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on How has climate change affected your life / plans? in ~enviro

    plutonic
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    Not at all really. Though me and my partner have a dream of retiring early in Europe, we won't be picking a place in the very south of Europe as it's already hot enough and will only be getting...

    Not at all really. Though me and my partner have a dream of retiring early in Europe, we won't be picking a place in the very south of Europe as it's already hot enough and will only be getting hotter (Except in the case of Jet Stream collapse which I don't see happening in our lives). Serious climate change is something the current generation of children and their children are going to have to face, not so much the adults of today.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on AI companies are buying tons of old books because they're free of AI slop in ~books

    plutonic
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    Isn't this the kind of thing Project Gutenberg is for? 77,000+ digitized old books that are out of copyright and free to use for everyone.

    Isn't this the kind of thing Project Gutenberg is for? 77,000+ digitized old books that are out of copyright and free to use for everyone.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on AI companies are buying tons of old books because they're free of AI slop in ~books

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    I have 3500 volumes, I'll never read them all. Some of them I've bought just because of their significance in history or literature and have no intention of ever reading them, but damn does my...

    I have 3500 volumes, I'll never read them all. Some of them I've bought just because of their significance in history or literature and have no intention of ever reading them, but damn does my home library look amazing. Almost everything from used bookstores/thrift stores and book sales, so investment isn't that crazy. One of these days I'm going to have to put together some pictures for Tildes.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on A hacker's arrest reveals Microsoft can track users via a Windows device ID in ~tech

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    Funny enough I've never used a Mac in my entire life, but from what I've heard it seems like you don't get the same bullshit that you get with windows, it just works and leaves you alone.

    Funny enough I've never used a Mac in my entire life, but from what I've heard it seems like you don't get the same bullshit that you get with windows, it just works and leaves you alone.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on A hacker's arrest reveals Microsoft can track users via a Windows device ID in ~tech

    plutonic
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    Moving to Linux full time was the best move I ever made. I have to use Windows 11 at work and I'm always surprised by just how crappy it is, so much garbage shoved in your face all the time. No, I...

    Moving to Linux full time was the best move I ever made. I have to use Windows 11 at work and I'm always surprised by just how crappy it is, so much garbage shoved in your face all the time. No, I don't want anything to do with OneDrive, constantly being nagged about updates and restarting my system where it takes 30 minutes to restart because its installing endless updates. Zero bullshit on my home Linux Mint setup, updates are done invisibly in the background and almost never require a restart, I haven't rebooted my system in over 6 months. Everything just worked perfectly right out of the box, never have to worry about being tracked or trying to fiddle with Secure Boot. Go away, I'll do whatever I want with my PC and that's that.

    9 votes

  17. Comment on Your cookware got worse on purpose: who owns Pyrex and All-Clad now in ~food

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    The Kirkland 5-Ply are amazing quality for the money. Really nice heavy cookware.

    The Kirkland 5-Ply are amazing quality for the money. Really nice heavy cookware.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on France becomes the first EU country to ban social media for children in ~tech

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    This isn't a bad idea, the kids could still use social media on PC's and laptops but not to suckered into the 24/7 phone rot. No one else loses their privacy on the internet. My idea is to have...

    This isn't a bad idea, the kids could still use social media on PC's and laptops but not to suckered into the 24/7 phone rot. No one else loses their privacy on the internet.

    My idea is to have some kind of easy parental control switch for various age ranges that parents could toggle and would whitelist what could be browsed on the internet and downloaded from app stores. Apps would be forced to comply to get themselves into the 'child' appstore.

    4 votes

  19. Comment on France becomes the first EU country to ban social media for children in ~tech

    plutonic
    Link Parent
    This is one of my biggest concerns with these policies, those forums or IRC channels or whatever they were that we misfits, weirdos, and loners found online in our youths, those safe spaces where...
    • Exemplary

    This is one of my biggest concerns with these policies, those forums or IRC channels or whatever they were that we misfits, weirdos, and loners found online in our youths, those safe spaces where we found like-minded people that showed us that we weren't in fact freaks or losers and we just needed to find other people who were like us are now going to be shut down and locked away. The kids will have no where to turn and will be forced into being utterly alone. It's disgusting.

    While I might not be a big fan of algorithmic social media, I think those places today are the safe spaces for lost kids.

    18 votes

  20. Comment on There are three types of farters. Which one are you? in ~science

    plutonic
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    Imagine you are just starting out, get a gig for some stock images and they tell you your image got a placement somewhere, you get all excited to see your image out in the wild and they show you this.

    Imagine you are just starting out, get a gig for some stock images and they tell you your image got a placement somewhere, you get all excited to see your image out in the wild and they show you this.

    4 votes