DarthBueller

@[email protected]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

DarthBueller,

Tim Sweeney is awesome. He’s one of the biggest conservation donors in my state and is personally responsible for permanently saving over 50,000 acres of land from development, protecting crucial habitat in a rapidly developing state, allowing public trail and nature preserves to get created. He lives in a normal house and drives a normal car and hikes the land he preserves when he’s not working. He’s a billionaire that lives a modest life, doesn’t mess with politics, and a true philanthropist. He doesn’t give to get press. The few articles out there about his philanthropy are because reporters stumble across it when reporting on whatever new nature preserve is opening in their area.

He might have some business practices that are problematic but are endemic to the industry.

DarthBueller, (edited )

You sound like someone who doesn’t know much about philanthropy and falls prey to confirmation bias as much as anyone. The fact that you put money laundering ahead of tax-write offs is telling. He’s not a mexican drug cartel buying US real estate.

Like I said, he’s a stealth philanthropist to the degree that it does next to nothing to burnish his reputation. The only reason I know about it is because I’m in land conservation. He doesn’t seek out any press attention at all, and the limited number of news articles about his donations are a testament to that. I am not saying that Epic business practices don’t have issues that are common between his competitors, but I am saying that he himself is not a slimeball. His personality is about as far as you can get from a psychopathic self-enriching tech bro. Basically he hit the jackpot with Unreal, then fortnite.

DarthBueller,

No, just defending someone that I know for a fact is a genuinely decent human being. He doesn’t give a shit about burnishing his reputation through the philanthropy he does. He does it because he hates seeing billionaire mansions on mountaintops as much as anyone who isn’t a fuck, because he wants everyone to have natural places to enjoy in the future. If you can’t see the difference between someone like Sweeney and someone like Musk, DeVoss, etc., that’s on you. He’s not trying to make the world worse for everyone.

Do I have issues with the concentration of wealth and growing inequality in the US? Yes. If you gave me a list of billionaires, where I had to rank them in terms of their benefit to the world vs. negative impact to the world, would I put him high in benefit and low in negative impact? Yes. He’s not spouting antisemitic nonsense, or trying to influence politics, or ruin education, or poison the minds of the American public. He’s just running his business, treating his employees well, and preserving land. So if you want to call me a bootlicker for points, fine. Given the world we live in, I’d rather have our billionaires be like Sweeney instead of Musk or DeVoss.

DarthBueller,

I specifically took issue with him being called a slimeball. He’s not a slimeball. Musk? Slimeball. DeVoss? Slimeball. Sweeney? Not a slimeball.

DarthBueller,

Prodigy! Don’t forget Prodigy! :)

How Commute Culture Made American Cities Lifeless -- Yet There's Hope (www.youtube.com)

This video outlines some of the relationships between US commuting culture and the perspectives that it’s engendered about the role of the city. The, when compared and contrasted to other nations’ approach to city design and perspectives shows that it’s possible to have a city core that’s more than just a workplace....

DarthBueller,

All I know is that PalmTran in south east Florida became wildly unpredictable during the Great Recession due to suicide by train. Many many times it was shut down do to people offing themselves on the tracks.

DarthBueller,

You forgot the frikandel speciaal.

DarthBueller,

Please explain usage of the word “movement”. Do you mean “the right way of lifting” or do you mean “the weightlifting revolution,” comrade?

DarthBueller,

Pittsburgh PA you run into similar things, but mostly related to turning left. There are far too few left turn lanes. So when a light turns green the unofficial rule is that you let one (*maybe *two) cars through to turn left before oncoming traffic goes straight, because some day, you will want to turn left and/or not be stuck behind a mile of traffic because one car can’t turn left at the front of the line. Traffic would be 100% worse if there was no Pittsburgh Left. You can always tell when someone is a recent arrival or not planning to stick around for very long because they either don’t know the rule or refuse to follow it.

DarthBueller,

For all of those who are down voting the nope, read the instructions on how to apply in the post. You all failed that trick test teachers handed out in grade school, where if you actually read the instructions, it tells you to put your name on the paper and put down your pencil without trying to answer any of the questions on the test, because the test is “do you pay attention to shit” not “do you know the answers”.

DarthBueller,

There’s a big difference between fantasizing about using the little yapping dickhead as a canon wad, and actually putting the yapping dickhead into a canon and firing it at a brick wall. Sure, I might think about poisoning my neighbors neglected dogs that do nothing but bark all day while I’m trying to concentrate, but i won’t, actually.

DarthBueller,

Oh my dear little baby fetus Jesus in the morning, just covered in bacon and smoked Gouda cheese and stapled to a tiny little 3” cross, that made me laugh my ass off and blush at the same time.

DarthBueller,

I was expecting it to say “Sir, I do not have the intellectual property rights to play this mixtape to the public.” The golden record is like MLK’s speeches - we know they’re epic, and we’re not allowed to listen to most of it/them without throwing some cash around.

DarthBueller,

There is a cover on it. Also a stylus was included. Don’t know how much protection the cover affords, but at least they have a fighting chance of figuring out how to play the record since the stylus was included.

DarthBueller, (edited )

Thanks for the update. Also, this comment is a downvoter honey pot. If you don’t stop harassing me, I will start my own instance to find out who you are and report your account. Thank you.

DarthBueller,

You forgot to mention IRGC propaganda and misinformation. The current Gaza conflict is, without a doubt, the biggest propaganda victory the IRGC has ever had. They’ve got the US left absolutely fractured. People were worried about 2024 elections? HAHAHAH just wait. We’re so fucked.

DarthBueller,

Doesn’t matter whether this is real or not, it’s far from a new concept, and the experiment of Palestinian refugee camps in Egypt was a lesson that Egypt has zero desire to repeat. Hell, Egypt now is only considering allowing wounded Palestinians into Sinai after massive international pressure. The plain truth of the matter is that Egypt has NO interest in admitting any Palestinians. No Arab country does. Hell, it’s amazing that there hasn’t been a successful Palestinian revolution in Jordan, since they’re in the majority. The Arab strategy for decades has been to push anti-Jewish (not merely anti-Israeli) propaganda to redirect popular discontent from domestic politics to “the plight of their Muslim brethren,” which also has the knock-on effect of redirecting a fair amount of domestic terrorism to international terrorism; while also not allowing additional Palestinian refugees into the country because the Palestinians have a history of actively destabilizing Arab nations they’re admitted to.

DarthBueller,

I definitely find myself hankering for a 4:3 monitor - I don’t care if its CRT or not, but are there any 4:3 LCD monitors that have a decent dot pitch? I’ve been spoiled by modern LCD tech and late-stage CRT tech - all the 4:3 LCD screens I see feel fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy.

DarthBueller,

It’s a moral problem for you. My vegan friend is vegan because she is a control freak. These are her own words.

DarthBueller,

Meanwhile in alpha gal allergy land (allergy to mammal, the only known sugar allergy and the only known “slow onset” allergy, now the third most common food allergy in the USA thanks to Lone Star ticks and climate change), I’m happy that non-dairy cheese has come lightyears in the past decade, but wish I could easily find chicken and turkey sausage that doesn’t use beef casing. Miyoko Brand cashew cheese is amazing but SO expensive.

Vegans should see alpha gal allergy folks as their allies, I think. Margaret Atwood, in her MaddAdam trilogy, imagined that alpha gal allergy was spread by ecoterrorists looking to reduce global meat consumption. While that is fiction, I sometimes think everyone should get the allergy. Basically ALL mammal consumption would cease. You’d still have sheep, alpacas, etc. for fiber production, but it would be a global food revolution unparalleled in human history, exceeding even the agricultural revolution from producing fertilizer from atmospheric nitrogen.

DarthBueller, (edited )

Does it produce alpha gal as part of the milk? Even alpha gal levels that are too low to cause anaphylaxis are thought to cause an inflammatory response that dramatically increases the risk of stroke from the creation of unstable arterial plaque. [EDIT: hey downvoter that has targeted my account, did you know that I could start my own instance and determine what user you are, so I can report you? Think about that before you continue to downvote everything I ever posted or commented on lemmy, okay? This isn’t reddit, and you aren’t fully anonymous.]

DarthBueller,

Look it up when you have a second, it’s fascinating, and it is only going to be more of an issue as the range of the Lone Star tick spreads. In the South (US) even budget grocery stores in bumfrick nowhere are starting to carry a fair selection of vegan cheese and some other vegan products, because of the allergy. A few years ago you might be able to get some rubbery soy imitation processed American Cheese, while now you can get much better stuff at a Food Lion. And it’s not because there’s suddenly vegans everywhere in rural America - it’s because people got the alpha gal allergy.

DarthBueller, (edited )

Model (USA) Rule of Evidence 407: Subsequent remedial measures are not admissible as evidence to prove negligence, culpable conduct, a defect in a product or its design, or a need for a warning or instruction.

But the court may admit this evidence for another purpose, such as impeachment or — if disputed — proving ownership, control, or the feasibility of precautionary measures

EDIT: I’m not looking up the contextualing comments that accompany the rule, but I will share what I remember from law school many years ago: this rule exists for public safety. You don’t want to penalize fixing a dangerous situation, regardless of the facts of any specific case.

Could we use AI to update 4:3 media to 16:9?

I’ve been re-watching star trek voyager recently, and I’ve heard when filming, they didn’t clear the wide angle of filming equipment, so it’s not as simple as just going back to the original film. With the advancement of AI, is it only a matter of time until older programs like this are released with more updated...

DarthBueller,

Color timing?

DarthBueller,

Is the origin of “color timing” refer to a relationship between color and signal on ntsc or pal or something? Just curious about the word timing.

DarthBueller,

Actually, that was a wonderful summary. Thank you!

DarthBueller,

THEY’RE MINERALS, MAR…… oh wait, you already… sorry.

DarthBueller,

Man that overdrive chip was off the hook. Took me from playing Descent frame by frame on my 486 DX 33 mhz machine to smooth as butter frame rates.

DarthBueller,

I keep hearing that bombing civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Is intentionally building military infrastructure in and amongst civilian infrastructure a war crime? I’m honestly curious about this. How can it be a war crime to bomb civilian infrastructure when it isn’t a crime to put military infrastructure intentionally amongst civilian infrastructure for the purpose of triggering “war crime!!!” allegations? It seems like a scenario intentionally intended to create propaganda when civilian deaths inevitably occur. I’m not an international law expert or war crimes expert. But it seems like utter bullshit if one is wrong and the other isn’t.

DarthBueller,

Shhhh, this is an inconvenient reality that the “anti-Israel folks no matter what happens” folks conveniently refuse to learn about. Granted the Christian Arab Israelis are way more chill about not murdering people or advocating genocide, but outside of college age Muslim brotherhood males, Arab Israelis are pretty fucking chill.

DarthBueller,

You are doing the Palestinians forced to be meat shields a disservice. By the way, Gaza is nowhere close to the most densely populated spot on earth. Also, there’s an emoji for “meat shield”.

DarthBueller,

Yes. The keyword for learning more about this is “externalities”.

DarthBueller,

lol seriously. In the real world, the vast majority of people would assume AGI stands for adjusted gross income. I’m surprised at the number of people that think CBT means cock and ball torture ahead of cognitive behavioral therapy.

DarthBueller,

I wish everyone had alpha gal allergy. Beef and pork production would cease and you’d stop seeing dairy put into every fucking packaged food on earth (chicken ramen? Dairy! God fuck on a Tuesday morning it drives me batty). If climate change keeps going, there will soon be lone star ticks everywhere! Bwhahahahahahahahah!

DarthBueller,

Margaret Atwood was spinning a yarn in the Maddadam trilogy when she wrote that alpha gal allergy was created by ecoterrorists trying to cut mammal consumption. But maybe she’s on to something. Will people start intentionally spreading Lone Star ticks? It’s already estimated to be the third most common food allergy in the US and growing fast. Even in folks that have the alpha gal antibody but no anaphylaxis, it’s thought that it causes a massive increase in risk of stroke from causing build up of unstable arterial plaque.

DarthBueller,

My hippie commune friend here in the US says that the “tragedy of the commons” began as a lie of the landed gentry in Britain. In law school it’s taught as a fact.

DarthBueller,

First result in google: Definition of Adjusted Gross Income | Internal Revenue Service irs.gov/…/definition-of-adjusted-gross-income

DarthBueller,

In clean browser window not logged in and in private mode, I get the same IRS link. Ngram probably can indicate which is the more commonly understood meaning. In the US, my guess is that it’s the tax meaning, by a light year. Or google trends, rather. Edit: trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 1-d&amp…

DarthBueller,

Are we kowtowing to a miniscule minority? The only kowtowing I personally observe are academic institutions within states with GOP-dominated legislatures and courts. K-12 schools in progressive areas within such states have to tread carefully to keep the man off their back, and public universities have to carefully craft their language relating to research and programs. But largely it’s a semantic game, where the substance doesn’t change but the language used is toned down to avoid attention of asshats. Similar to any research related to human sexuality when there’s a Republican president in the White House and the NIS/NIH leadership is dominated by GOP appointees - they don’t change the research, but they absolutely rework the language used to describe the project.

DarthBueller,

Ilhan Omar’s treatment of a woman asking for her political support in opposition to female genital mutilation was pretty close to being a liberal asshole politician (or it revealed her to be trying to have her cake and eat it; namely, that she takes positions designed to get liberal support, and simultaneously strategically acts like a regressive when it comes to FGM to get support from African hijabis and other Islamists).

DarthBueller, (edited )

It is far less this and far more developers and builders with limited imagination and limited government requirements building subdivisions with thousands of homes that are 10-20 minute drives from commercial districts, combined with state and local governments that are afraid of the political fallout from exercising the right of eminent domain to create trail corridors, so trails are virtually impossible to connect for any distance (except for abandoned rail beds).

DarthBueller,

ebikes take the sweat out of hilly commutes.

DarthBueller, (edited )

People in Phoenix treat their grass like they treat their guns, you can take their grass from their cold dead hands. There’s no reason there should be year-round mosquitoes in a desert city.

DarthBueller,

They’re coming down in price, many places offer subsidies to get one, and there are puncture-resistant tires that do wonders. That said, I also live too far from work to bike, because I can’t afford to live where I work.

DarthBueller, (edited )

Taking lead out of gas did wonders for that, though there’s enough lead in urban soil that it’s probably not good to eat eggs from urban yard chickens, or some root vegetables like carrots, turnips, radishes, and beets if grown in urban soil. That said, other than some root veggies, garden veggies do not take up lead in the soil.

DarthBueller,

I don’t know, but my 5 year old daughter innocently calls Mercer Mayer “Mistress Mayer” and it’s all I can do to not burst out laughing, thinking of the author as a hard core scenester in tight leather holding a riding crop.

DarthBueller,

I’d say it’s come a long way since Windows 3.1 and the days before PnP, to the point that I can actually clear my print que, where not that long ago clearing your print que seemed to be an option MS offered to allow us to experience the rage that arises from unadulterated powerlessness. Hell, half the time it even switches default printers based on whether I’m at home or the office. Now, if Adobe could make it easier to distinguish from settings that will only work in the printer’s driver settings, vs. the Adobe application’s print settings, we’d be halfway out of perdition.

DarthBueller,

I am fixing up a pile of dead DSi XL’s and let me tell you, those things are a joy to play on for my aging eyes and massive hands. They’re hell to get parts for (the battery cover, and the OEM type stylus with a softer nib rather than the cheap solid one piece plastic replacements, are basically unobtainium). But my preferred format for anything NDS/DSiware.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • KamenRider
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • KbinCafe
  • Socialism
  • oklahoma
  • SuperSentai
  • feritale
  • All magazines