sparksbet's recent activity

  1. Comment on Happy 17776 Day! in ~misc

    sparksbet
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    I love 17776, or "football Homestuck" as the Tumblr folks have begun to call it. I reread it every Superbowl and the beginning gets me every time.

    I love 17776, or "football Homestuck" as the Tumblr folks have begun to call it. I reread it every Superbowl and the beginning gets me every time.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

    sparksbet
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    Affordable housing for seniors is a thing elsewhere in the world, too. Seniors are very much a vulnerable population in a number of ways when they aren't otherwise wealthy.

    Affordable housing for seniors is a thing elsewhere in the world, too. Seniors are very much a vulnerable population in a number of ways when they aren't otherwise wealthy.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

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    I think it's a little flippant to equate generations with something truly arbitrary like zodiac signs. While the lines between generations and their labels are more or less arbitrary, it is true...

    I think it's a little flippant to equate generations with something truly arbitrary like zodiac signs. While the lines between generations and their labels are more or less arbitrary, it is true that there are trends among people born around the same time, both because of similar experiences living through world events and just being at a similar age. Generations are a very flawed way of describing that, but they're not completely fake nonsense like zodiac stuff is.

    6 votes

  4. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

    sparksbet
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    I don't think you're really looking at the same graphs I linked if your conclusion is that Gen X is more conservative than Boomers (though many seem to reflect them being more or less equally...

    I don't think you're really looking at the same graphs I linked if your conclusion is that Gen X is more conservative than Boomers (though many seem to reflect them being more or less equally conservative). The graphs very consistently seem to show younger people, including Gen Z, as being far more likely to vote Dem than their older cohorts, and that this trend based on age has increased in intensity compared to earlier decades. Gen Z may have particular issues that they tend to be more conservative on as a cohort, I'm not gonna claim anything universal here, but I don't think the evidence that Gen Z is "following in [conservative Gen X's] footsteps" is particularly strong -- certainly nothing convincing on that front has been posted in this thread, and the graphs I linked directly contradict that conclusion.

    In general, of course, generations are fake and the lines between them are arbitrary, so in terms of actually looking at data, going based on age or year of birth directly, as the pew research stuff does, makes more sense.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Colorado passes first law in the US to ban arrests based solely on colorimetric drug tests in ~society

    sparksbet
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    Oh god, even 4% is pretty high for how much these are used (an error rate that seems low can end up being unacceptably high in absolute terms depending on the size of the population), but if the...

    Oh god, even 4% is pretty high for how much these are used (an error rate that seems low can end up being unacceptably high in absolute terms depending on the size of the population), but if the rates are really that much higher, I hope we see more bans like this in the future.

    5 votes

  6. Comment on An ED resident and developer built a free, medically accurate clinical casebook for every patient of The Pitt in ~tv

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    I didn't know there was a third thing I could be mixing up the abbreviation ED for! lol this does legit look interesting tho

    I didn't know there was a third thing I could be mixing up the abbreviation ED for! lol this does legit look interesting tho

  7. Comment on German males under 45 may need military approval for long stays abroad in ~society

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    Compulsory military service in Germany has been a big political issue for a while, and I suspect a big part of things is that there's not much faith that this will remain voluntary.

    Compulsory military service in Germany has been a big political issue for a while, and I suspect a big part of things is that there's not much faith that this will remain voluntary.

    5 votes

  8. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

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    yeah, renting for life is indeed more common in Germany, but I think it remains a hit against independence. I also think how normalized home ownership is will vary a lot based on where in Germany...

    yeah, renting for life is indeed more common in Germany, but I think it remains a hit against independence. I also think how normalized home ownership is will vary a lot based on where in Germany you are and what economic class you're from.

    10 votes

  9. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    sparksbet
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    I can tell from your spoilered content that you're engaging with the game well and are making good progress, so I wouldn't worry too much about feeling lost. Use the ship's log, and if you feel...

    I can tell from your spoilered content that you're engaging with the game well and are making good progress, so I wouldn't worry too much about feeling lost. Use the ship's log, and if you feel stuck and confused, jump to a different thread that you haven't completed.

    a technically not a spoiler comment based on your current progress that might get you thinking in the right direction, shouldn't spoil much at your stage but open at your own risk

    But I have also now learned all the stars are exploding, so there may not be a safe place to warp to?

    This is a good line of thinking about what's going on, but there's also another practical side -- you don't know of many places outside of your solar system anyway. Certainly not with enough detail that could direct the ship to warp there.

    a slightly more leading question that edges closer to a spoiler, open at your own risk

    You've clearly engaged with the Ash Twin Project, but how much do you understand about what it was intended to accomplish?

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

    sparksbet
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    This depends on the specific political issue ofc, but it very much isn't the case in general, at least not according to US polling data. Age and political partisanship are highly correlated, and...

    I get the sense from polling that the younger generation (maybe zoomers or whatever they're called now) are at least as conservative as boomers.

    This depends on the specific political issue ofc, but it very much isn't the case in general, at least not according to US polling data. Age and political partisanship are highly correlated, and the difference between generations is markedly greater than it was in 1990. There may be some specific issues where Gen Z tends to be equally conservative as Boomers, but I don't think the poll data as a whole remotely reflects that they are in general.

    Unless you're comparing Gen Z to Boomers when they were Gen Z's age, which is harder for me to find a direct comparison for.

    12 votes

  11. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

    sparksbet
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    Yeah honestly I think anything beyond that would be too much of a spoiler. It is one of my favorite games ever, though, and was a crazy meaningful experience, so I highly recommend it to anyone...

    Yeah honestly I think anything beyond that would be too much of a spoiler. It is one of my favorite games ever, though, and was a crazy meaningful experience, so I highly recommend it to anyone here who hasn't played it.

    I remember in middle school English class, our teacher divided all narrative conflicts into Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, and Man vs Self. A story could obviously include more than one conflict, but each conflict could be categorized into one of these. This is probably a bit overly simplified since it's a tool for middle schoolers, but using this framework, I think Outer Wilds is one of the best executed examples I've seen of a purely Man vs Nature plot.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

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    Annihilation might be a good pick? At least the movie version seems to go for something similar to what you describe (I haven't read the book so I can't weigh in on how different its take is).

    Annihilation might be a good pick? At least the movie version seems to go for something similar to what you describe (I haven't read the book so I can't weigh in on how different its take is).

    5 votes

  13. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

    sparksbet
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    I assumed based on the examples that "man vs self" style stories like Bojack aren't what OP is looking for, even though they're also exactly what I thought of when I saw the title.

    I assumed based on the examples that "man vs self" style stories like Bojack aren't what OP is looking for, even though they're also exactly what I thought of when I saw the title.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on Indie Pass, a PC subscription service for indie games to launch on April 13, 2026 in ~games

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    iirc Gamepass at least theoretically has the advantage that some games can get up-front funding in exchange for being included, which can make sense. That doesn't seem to be the case for this...

    iirc Gamepass at least theoretically has the advantage that some games can get up-front funding in exchange for being included, which can make sense. That doesn't seem to be the case for this revenue model tho.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Indie Pass, a PC subscription service for indie games to launch on April 13, 2026 in ~games

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    if cozy-horror is indeed a rising indie genre, then it should be labeled as such rather than just as "cozy"

    if cozy-horror is indeed a rising indie genre, then it should be labeled as such rather than just as "cozy"

    6 votes

  16. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    yeah, I think it's very similar to me. It's hard otherwise for me to reckon with where the kind, loving person I fell in love with went and how they got replaced with someone who was so willfully...

    yeah, I think it's very similar to me. It's hard otherwise for me to reckon with where the kind, loving person I fell in love with went and how they got replaced with someone who was so willfully cruel and callous towards me in the end. They had a lot of personality-related mental health stuff going on in the last year of our relationship, which I don't think helps with the feeling that I completely lost the old them.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on You can finally change the goofy Gmail address you chose years ago in ~tech

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    I haven't done anything with it yet, but I did manage to snag sparks.bet a while back. Someday I'll spin up a proper personal website there... someday....

    I haven't done anything with it yet, but I did manage to snag sparks.bet a while back. Someday I'll spin up a proper personal website there... someday....

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Why Swedish schools are bringing back books in ~books

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    I don't necessarily think the between-classes social element is unique to phones, and I can understand where parents are coming from more on that front, especially at US schools.

    I don't necessarily think the between-classes social element is unique to phones, and I can understand where parents are coming from more on that front, especially at US schools.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    Makes sense! hopefully OP gets a nice balance of perspectives between everyone

    Makes sense! hopefully OP gets a nice balance of perspectives between everyone

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Why Swedish schools are bringing back books in ~books

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    I mean, it seems like "phones are allowed to be physically present in the classroom but only off/silent in a bag or pocket. If it's out, it gets taken until the end of class and you get written...

    I mean, it seems like "phones are allowed to be physically present in the classroom but only off/silent in a bag or pocket. If it's out, it gets taken until the end of class and you get written up" would still be a totally workable policy in a modern school, imo, that balances the kid's ability to use the phone in an emergency with them not disrupting class. Maybe I'm underestimating the amount of pushback from Millennial parents on something like that, though.

    2 votes