liv

@[email protected]

I’m new here and don’t know what to put in my profile. She/them, living in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

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liv,

So cool!

liv,

Remarkably, the letter’s signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and a member of its board, who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman in the first place.

I am so confused.

liv,

Ugh, yours sounds even worse than ours.

We just elected a centre-right party that needed to go into coalition with our most right-wing party, who are libertarians, and our most populist party. They finally formed yesterday and now we have a government that is going to destroy the environment and decimate social services.

liv,

I’m sorry. Just wanted to give you a virtual hug if you’d like one.

Americans are explaining why they don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service settings after foreigners complained that 'mmhmm' comes off as rude (www.insider.com)

I was watching a video from two years ago about different social norms and this showed up. Found someone questioning the same eight years ago on reddit (when it seemed less normalized). It feels so weird not being aware of this shift, even as a foreigner.

liv,

“c’est moi,” meaning, “it’s me who thanks you.”

Ah so that’s what that means. I thought I was mishearing. That’s pretty close to what I was brought up with, “it’s my pleasure” (meaning it’s me who is pleased to be helping).

The informal/vernacular in my country (NZ) is “sweet as” which puzzles most visitors, or sometimes “it’s all good”.

liv,

I was a bit offended by tourists doing that mmhmm thing until I found out that it’s considered polite in the US.

I was interpreting it as “yes I know you are thankful to me, and so you should be! By the way, I’m an oaf.”

liv,

I thought they had already done it. I got the notification months ago.

liv,

Ah that explains it. Thanks!

liv,

The top result is already out. Obviously the John Oliver fans got their wish and Pūteketeke won. Thousands of them had to be disqualified for cheating, though.

We are all waiting now to see who is in second. Fingers crossed for the Fairy Tern, New Zealand’s most endangered bird!

liv,

That’s so cool that you’re doing NaNoWriMo! I’ve always felt too daunted by lack of plot. Let us know how it goes!

liv,

That sounds hard.

Do you meditate at all?.Sometimes it can help reset the critical inner voice.

liv,

That’s such a cool idea!

liv,

That tracks.

Pretty sure Elon Musk railed against bots on twitter despite having been proven to have used bots on twitter to manipulate opinion himself.

liv,

I’ve never used twitter in my life, still have a vague interest in what Musk is doing to it though.

liv, (edited )

Another way of looking at it is bottle openers look remarkably similar to beetle genitalia.

I think the beetles were here first.

liv,

I love it!

liv,

The being baptized part is relevant to converts, and the being a godparent part would have relevance for all transgender catholics.

liv,

I knew it!! When I was a kid I was told cats don’t have facial expressions but they so do!

liv,

That would make sense. The cats in my life have always seemed super expressive to me but I was infatuated with our family cat pretty much from birth.

liv,

I have several hypotheses:

  • the same force that stops them decaying also stops their hair from ever getting mussed up, falling out, or growing longer
  • only we can’t see their reflection, they themselves can see it
  • vampires are essentially a representation of a parasitical upper class and as such they look like idealised wealthy aristocrats
liv,

Ah that’s a good point. Maybe they just use windows or large pools of water.

Or cellphones.

liv,

I’m absolutely convinced!!!

Chimpanzees Go Through Menopause, Too (www.nytimes.com)

It is not obvious why selection should favor menopause or the continued survival of individuals that can no longer reproduce. The famous Grandmother Hypothesis had been used to explain the evolutionary significance of menopause. A new study conducted on the Ngogo chimpanzees community of wild chimpanzees in Uganda challenges...

liv,

Kind of weird though that the males don’t feel the same grandchild pressures.

liv,

And elephants.

liv,

But isn’t old male and old female POV the same?

For both of them the new babies are biological grandchildren. So why would only one of them want to stop producing more? Why is there not a male menopause?

What am I missing here?

liv, (edited )

I feel like the stupidest person in the world because I still don’t see the difference between Bob and Alice and now I also don’t understand this part

If Daniel has a child, Bob won’t have a new child, to avoid starving his grandchild.

How does Bob do this? Why doesn’t he just menopause too? If menopause ensures more descendant survival wouldn’t they both do it?

Why doesn’t Alice just die?

The troupe still have to find enough food for her, how is that an evolutionary advantage to keep a non breeding member around?

If something happens to Charlotte now the troupe cannot reproduce unless they go out and find a new female, but if something happens to Daniel then Bob can still reproduce with Charlotte. What is the advantage in that asymetry?

Edit: I was puzzling over the Charlotte factor. Is it more that somewhere along the line the Charlottes of this world were killing the non-menopausal Alices? Because that kind of would make sense.

Thank you so much for taking the time to try to explain it by the way. If you don’t feel like answering my latest round of questions that’s okay!

liv,

Thanks so much, I understand the hypothesis now!!

And that article does show how it could map onto humans. For some reason I had been under the impression that early hominids did not necessarily have the females-as-strangers setup.

It’s interesting to compare with elephants, who are matriarchal. The “Alice” of an asian elephant herd will often stop having kids (though, she biologically still can) so her daughters can have some, even though unlike Charlotte, her daughters are related to her so theoreticly it’s more of a Bob/Daniel situation.

liv,

I’m waiting for the part where the US insurance companies are discovered using that data en mass to increase premiums and deny coverage.

That’s going to be my “I told you so”.

liv,

I’m old enough that a lot of things that were going to take a long time have come to pass, so I feel confident this will come.

AI and genetics are both moving fairly fast, and insurance is about numbers and probabilities.

liv,

I’m so sorry.

Let the community work it out: A throwback to early internet days could fix social media’s crisis of legitimacy (www.niemanlab.org)

[…]why should a few companies — or a few billionaire owners — have the power to decide everything about online spaces that billions of people use? This unaccountable model of governance has led stakeholders of all stripes to criticize platforms’ decisions as arbitrary, corrupt or irresponsible. In the early, pre-web days...

liv,

Apart from my illness support group, I’m only on fediverse social media now, and only via web browser. It’s a breath of fresh air.

I’m realising there are subtle ways that enshittification constrains and shapes actual conversations between us.

liv,

We are “social animals” though. It’s normal for the social animals to attempt to regulate what each other does and how they treat others in the group.

You see this in apes, elephants, whales, etc.

liv,

Thanks for posting!

Tipping culture - what do you tip? (thetakeout.com)

Here in WA state, the minimum wage per hour is $15.74 (higher in some areas). Tipping culture says 20%, but that’s generally to support lower paid waitstaff in areas that can pay less than minimum wage by employers. Where/What are you tipping and what kind of service would you expect for a 20% tip?

liv,

I don’t tip because I live in a country that doesn’t tip and I’m very against it ever taking root here.

Those things about controlling the service, and choosing who “deserves” what, are anathema to me.

The person is doing a job however they and their employer see fit. If they want to run a business like Basil Fawlty that’s on them.

My input into what they get paid is to vote for strong labour laws, min wage rises, and workers’ rights. If a tipping culture emerged it would most likely weaken those things and make wages more capricious and less fair. We must resist it.

liv,

Nothing. It’s not really a thing here except for children who want lollies (candy) or for (mostly young) adults who are going to a theme party and mostly seem to want to look sexy.

But thanks for the reminder, I had better buy some lollies to hand out just in case.

liv,

That’s about to reverse though. I think during the climate apocalypse, eventually humans will no longer have access to things like vision correction, wheelchairs, antibiotics and other medicines, surgeries, etc. They will also be dealing with lower nutrient intakes.

liv,

Realistically, the climate catastrophe is going to mean earth supports a much smaller population of humans, which will hopefully adapt to the changed conditions.

I’m not sure what form that will take, but my guess is they will probably shrink in stature due to diet and have some adaptations for breathing less oxygen-rich air.

liv,

Omg cool!!!

liv,

I can see that it would be! Hope you have a wonderful time!

liv,

Never has the “Just a moment…” snippet view been more apropos.

liv, (edited )

I am pro sex work and live in a country where it is legal for all adults involved (except pimps) but I don’t agree with this:

It’s simple body autonomy issues and people are only against it from years of religious based shame.

From what I have seen, the people who are against it who actually organise against it tend to be motivated by a desire to protect people from coercion and trafficking.

I don’t agree with them that criminalising it would achieve that, but it’s definitely their position.

liv,

I’m in a similar boat to you. I don’t have any answers, just wanted to express solidarity. 💛 You and I are children of the universe the same as the trees and the stars, we have a right to be here too, and I hope one day our lives are easier.

liv,

Germany, France and Spain also have killed and kidnapped citizens.

You may wish to rephrase that…

liv, (edited )

I agree, it is technically true. Sorry if I sounded too nitpicking, I’ve just come back from a week with no internet access /news so for a moment I thought you were talking about all of them doing it during the events of the last few days!

liv,

Yes, it’s a massive level of cringe.

Gmail is convenient, but if it’s about to be filled with 😊 and 👍 then I’ve got to stop using it for any serious communication.

liv, (edited )

Thanks, this book looks like an interesting read. Will probably have to wait until my blood pressure is under control. One of history’s great injustices that is still felt today.

Here is the speech that led to his death.

liv,

If movies are more your thing, there’s a very good biopic of Lumumba.

liv,

Not sure there’s really that much difference between a dramatized movie and a dramatized tv show these days.

It’s about 2h long, so you could probably watch it in four 30-minute chunks and get the same effect.

It’s probably not very popular subject matter in the west so I don’t think Netflix is about to do a remake any time soon!

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