saturnV's recent activity

  1. Comment on Do online petitions actually work? in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link
    The UK parliament petition site does get mentioned relatively often, and as it has actual consequences to signature thresholds (response at 10k, debate in parliament at 100k) they at least have...

    The UK parliament petition site does get mentioned relatively often, and as it has actual consequences to signature thresholds (response at 10k, debate in parliament at 100k) they at least have some sort of guarantee of possible effects. I think they definitely have a lot of power to bring attention to issues politicians are less aware of. I know the EU definitely has a petition website and maybe taiwan as well? The Hansard Society published an interesting article on the history of petitions in the UK here going over how the e-petition system revived a once-popular concept that had died for a period.

    11 votes

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

    saturnV
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I read those a few years ago and loved them, just didn't get around to foundation till now! Thanks for the hint, maybe I'll re-read them :-)

    If you haven't, I also recommend I, Robot as well as the Naked Earth series to mee R. Daneel Olivaw and company.

    Yeah, I read those a few years ago and loved them, just didn't get around to foundation till now! Thanks for the hint, maybe I'll re-read them :-)

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Tildes Video Thread in ~misc

    saturnV
    Link
    Why did Thomas Jefferson have a Qur'an? - Interesting video from a fairly unopinionated perspective commenting on american secularism and its history from a muslim perspective Veritasium: What...

    Why did Thomas Jefferson have a Qur'an? - Interesting video from a fairly unopinionated perspective commenting on american secularism and its history from a muslim perspective
    Veritasium: What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI and Learning - A talk from Derek of Veritasium on why AI won't 'revolutionize' education like so many claim
    Reverse-Engineering a Definition of Yuri [TTRPG Video Essay] - An April first special - An investigation into semantics of yuri using the game 'Yuri Chess' as a guide

    3 votes

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

    saturnV
    Link
    I read Foundation by Isaac Asimov this week. I totally understand the hype around it now, the premise is super cool even if the philosophical ideas underlying it are a bit shaky. I don't know...

    I read Foundation by Isaac Asimov this week. I totally understand the hype around it now, the premise is super cool even if the philosophical ideas underlying it are a bit shaky. I don't know enough about the roman empire to get all the references, but I get enough to find it interesting. I think the 9D chess structure in particular is really fun and keeping me hooked. Probably gonna continue through the rest soonish

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Recommended podcasts by experts in their fields? in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link
    I really enjoy lingthusiasm by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. They cover a broad swathe of linguistic topics while remaining fun and accessible to newcomers. The content is basically always...

    I really enjoy lingthusiasm by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. They cover a broad swathe of linguistic topics while remaining fun and accessible to newcomers. The content is basically always the sort of stuff that will make you pause for the next few days mid-sentence reflecting on some aspect of your communication, it's awesome!

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Recommended podcasts by experts in their fields? in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link
    Data over Dogma and Within Reason are quite good podcasts for a critical understanding of Christianity from a more scholarly perspective

    Data over Dogma and Within Reason are quite good podcasts for a critical understanding of Christianity from a more scholarly perspective

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Recommended podcasts by experts in their fields? in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link
    Sean Carroll's Mindscape is really good for having academic experts on, the host is primarily a physicist but also has a strong grasp of philosophy. (He also has some pretty good books on physics)

    Sean Carroll's Mindscape is really good for having academic experts on, the host is primarily a physicist but also has a strong grasp of philosophy. (He also has some pretty good books on physics)

    7 votes

  8. Comment on Recommended podcasts by experts in their fields? in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link Parent
    If you like Money Stuff, you might also like Odd Lots, though it's not exclusively focused on current events, it has similar vibes in being a less serious, while still very informed, take on finance.

    If you like Money Stuff, you might also like Odd Lots, though it's not exclusively focused on current events, it has similar vibes in being a less serious, while still very informed, take on finance.

  9. Comment on Religious switching into and out of Islam in ~humanities

    saturnV
    Link Parent
    Interestingly, there's a similarish movement in Islam against recognising post-Quran laws called Quranism which is very progressive

    Interestingly, there's a similarish movement in Islam against recognising post-Quran laws called Quranism which is very progressive

    4 votes

  10. Comment on $1.4bn is a lot to fall through the cracks, even for Tesla in ~finance

    saturnV
    Link Parent
    I think the article being published on alphaville implies it's not as "serious" i.e. not an outright accusation

    I think the article being published on alphaville implies it's not as "serious" i.e. not an outright accusation

    1 vote

  11. Comment on HOTGLUE.ME :: unique tool for web publishing & internet samizdat in ~comp

    saturnV
    Link
    This seems like an interesting tool for making more "Web 1.0"ish personal sites. Looking at their github it hasn't been updated in a while, but everything still appears to work. From the website:

    This seems like an interesting tool for making more "Web 1.0"ish personal sites. Looking at their github it hasn't been updated in a while, but everything still appears to work.
    From the website:

    HOTGLUE is a visual tool for making amazing web-pages!
    Simply manipulate pictures, text and video directly in a browser window!
    Editing a page looks exactly the same as viewing it, the only difference is that you can move things around!
    No programming skills needed!

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Tildes Video Thread in ~misc

  16. Comment on An appeal to the community for non-algorithmic recommendations in ~talk

    saturnV
    Link
    an article about irving finkel, a really interesting assyriologist (I don't know quite how to describe him). (warning, this is on substack, but there are also some quite good videos on the british...

    an article about irving finkel, a really interesting assyriologist (I don't know quite how to describe him). (warning, this is on substack, but there are also some quite good videos on the british museum youtube channel and a bunch of articles about him if you want alternatives)

    square wheels is a personal website that I find beautiful, with some cool stories as well!

    marginalia search engine is an alternative small-web search engine optimised for finding interesting, non-seo'd links which are harder to find in google/bing/etc.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Cancelled Powerpuff live-action reboot trailer in ~tv

    saturnV
    Link Parent
    these got dmca'd as well btw

    these got dmca'd as well btw

  18. Comment on Sunday morning musings no. 1. Does anyone really know what’s happening in Ukraine? in ~society

    saturnV
    Link
    Oh also to answer the real q Right now my impression is that movement of the front lines has stalled for a while and it's just a meat-grinder, with worse absolute losses on the russian side but...

    Oh also to answer the real q

    what’s your narrative about the war, and what sources of information are you drawing upon?

    Right now my impression is that movement of the front lines has stalled for a while and it's just a meat-grinder, with worse absolute losses on the russian side but similar/worse per capita on ukrainian.

    Sources I read are mostly the FT and the Economist because I find them in general to be reliable sources of analysis and get them for free through institutional subscriptions, though I think Reuters and BBC are both good as well

    5 votes

  19. Comment on Sunday morning musings no. 1. Does anyone really know what’s happening in Ukraine? in ~society

    saturnV
    Link
    From another outsider just trying to follow the news, my understanding is: No strong consensus, though I think lots of this is predicated upon how good of a deal they might expect No idea, but...
    • Exemplary

    From another outsider just trying to follow the news, my understanding is:

    1. No strong consensus, though I think lots of this is predicated upon how good of a deal they might expect
    2. No idea, but ukraine used to be very corrupt and even after recent big anti-corruption efforts it'd be surprising if there wasn't any, especially given how big the incentives are. I mean if you search any major military + "corruption" you're going to find something online, the important thing is in how much this is occuring. Also, not really sure how corruption would change the pro-ukraine moral argument.
    3. If they're talking about azov batallion, they're sort of hard to understand, but have been talked about a lot and are not a secret. They are also relatively small (wikipedia estimates 1000 troops compared to >1M in active service in Ukraine) compared to how much they're talked about IMO
    4. This doesn't seem very plausible to me given how relatively dovish Biden was (afraid of escalation, slow to send higher-end weapons) and zelensky's refusal to leave kyiv during invasion, but obviously impossible to falsify. Also I have no idea what "dealing with Russia" is meant to entail given the invasion was unprompted (Putin denying it was going to happen till it started), and there were already negotiations wrt 2014- onwards invasion of Donbas
    5. Yes, it is true to a degree that russia has weathered sanctions better than expected (this is mostly due to having very good central bankers among other things), but many analysts think that their economy is basically being propped up by massive gov. spending and is at risk of collapse in the long term.
    6. Can't comment on this, don't really follow this kind of thing that much. The one thing I'll say is that lots of western mil-tech makes assumptions that don't hold in ukraine (i.e. total air superiority) and that there are also lots of issues where they are limited by how many i.e. rockets they can obtain, leading to rationing which also doesn't help. Also, drone warfare seems to be fairly dominant which there isn't much pre-existing mil-tech designed around so is all just being hacked together on both sides.
    7. Idk about this, it's not being shouted from the rooftops but it's not hidden. Ukrainian government, US, UK, ISW (think tank), all output their own (fairly similar within like 10%-ish iirc) estimates. It's just not particularly news-worthy in general I think.
      Bonus: LOL at the bellingcat rumours, those are totally unfounded and are just cope (mostly from people who don't like seeing the conclusions they reach)
    24 votes

  20. Comment on How artificial intelligence can make board games better in ~comp

    saturnV
    Link
    Interesting application of non-LLM based AI (it uses monte carlo tree search), their website is https://www.tabletoprnd.co.uk/

    Interesting application of non-LLM based AI (it uses monte carlo tree search), their website is https://www.tabletoprnd.co.uk/

    2 votes