Dаn̈ıel Раršlow 🥧 @pieist@qoto.org

@BBCWorld

I've seen insane claims about chemtrails and radar being used to create and direct hurricanes.

Scientific illiteracy is a real problem in this country. The amount of energy in even a moderate hurricane exceeds the total electrical generating capacity of the United States, by at least two orders of magnitude. A hurricane contains as much energy as a nuclear war. The idea that we could secretly be generating them with radar stations is ... words fail.

@elizatech I find driving in the UK nerve racking enough in, e.g., a VW Golf. As an American it's hard to get used to cars being that close to each other. I can't imagine trying to pilot one of those beasts in a city.

@bruces Fruit flies are drawn to alcohol, which puts them in direct conflict with FAA regulations. (And if you're thinking of strictly military uses, it also means theyd be hard to persuade to head towards Islamic countries.)

@rhempel @parismarx

Still, it's a slight improvement on the cheapest tier of Wipro or Infosys contractors from India, inasmuch as while you get unusable code either way, but you get it a lot faster with AI and you don't spend nearly as much time trying to explain the problem space to it. Minutes to get vaguely convincing-looking garbage, instead of days or weeks.

@aral
And here I thought AI was going to save us from the oncoming global cholera epidemic by boiling all our water for us.

@AliceStollmeyer This is staggering. And the immensity of this crime is going to be completely lost on the Western press.

@futurebird
(In all seriousness, a few years ago there was someone doing the opposite nearby here in Portland: they were sitting out with a box and balloons and stickers proclaiming Democratic candidates, and a sign saying they'd collect and turn in your ballot for you. It really smelled to me like a tar pit scam for making Democratic ballots disappear. Several people called the police, but of course no laws were being broken.)

@lightninhopkins @futurebird I never mail mine. I always take it directly to the county election office.

@futurebird Also, if someone wearing buttons and a hat for the opponent of the person you want to vote for offers to mail your ballot for you, say a polite "no thank you".

@beebrookshire Tried to use the sequestration argument to get my wife to agree to get a natural latex mattress instead of a urethane foam one. One uses carbon removed from the air, the second uses carbon removed from the ground.

@bruces "I've been cutting my hair with stone tools..." Video is in fact of a young woman cutting his hair with stone tools.

(I did wonder if there was going to be a Basque connection here. Their words for many cutting tools, e.g. knife, axe, begin with "stone" [aitz]. Guraizeak [scissors] looks like it might have a variant of that syllable in it but I'm not a Basque etymologist.)

@Stefan_S_from_H @bruces I wonder if prattling about one's Neanderthal heritage will become a thing, the way certain kinds of Americans -- including one side of my family -- like to claim to be part Native American. (Though it's usually the sort who still say "Indian".)

The speaker of the house just wrote a letter to Zelenskyy demanding the resignation of his ambassador.

It is in no way appropriate for the speaker to write such a letter. He does not represent the US, that falls to the executive branch He does not even speak for the legislative branch inasmuch as he cannot make representations about its will on any subject it hasn't actually voted on.

@bruces They just don't want to have to stake out a sacrificial animal to the wolf god every few days to protect the rest of their livestock.

@EugeneMcParland Free expression is all very well, but his belligerence brings it to the level of public disorder.

However, such is the nature of Japanese culture that he's probably doing more good than harm. This kind of public spectacle is not well-regarded there to say the least, and he's doing more to bring disrepute to his own positions than an opponent could ever accomplish.