luciferofastora
@luciferofastora@feddit.org
- Comment on Zebra!! 1 day ago:
Ooh, I’d forgotten that one! I gotta add that to my “ask young people about memes before their time so I can feel even older” list
- Comment on More chickens! 3 days ago:
A fuck ton is a thousand kilofucks. Traditionally, a fuck is supposed to be the mass equivalent of the chemical and potential energy expended by an individual during an act of intercourse. The origin of “giving a fuck” is thus the figurative expense of mental energy afforded to a topic. Since the definitions and intensity of intercourse vary so wildly, the exact amount of investment a given person may associate with it is highly individual.
Several efforts were started to determine and define a standard fuck. To date, none of these have concluded, as the involved scientists are still exploring all the different forms of kinks and constellations to gather representative samples. Critical voices have suggested that these studies are being intentionally dragged out for personal benefit.
This is further hamstrung by various external influences attempting to limit or expand the definitions of intercourse. For instance, some groups are attempting to pressure researcher teams and their funding institutions into excluding all intercourse not performed by a heterosexual, wedded couple for the purpose of procreation. Others have campaigned for relaxing or abolishing the standards of consent, but Ethics Boards have largely blocked such efforts, most of them also forbidding the inclusion of data offered by proponents.
As for physical representations of that mass equivalent, there is plainly no consensus. Some of the suggestions decay too quickly to be useful, while others have been hard to use. There’s just no realistic way to make any given solution fit all applications.
In short, the topic is highly contentious still.
Fun to research though.
- Comment on More chickens! 3 days ago:
Because you need a place to stick all the assholes with a control complex that didn’t even cut it by police standards.
- Comment on More chickens! 3 days ago:
Had a neighbour who generally wasn’t fit for pets. Whoever gave her a first dog to live in her tuna can of a smoker’s apartment ought to be sued for cruelty. Whoever gave her a second one should be forced to live with the lot.
One or her dogs didn’t get along with the other. No clue why or what she tried, but I’m inclined to assume “nothing” and it sure didn’t work. Poor thing got locked out on the balcony instead. Whole neighbourhood got to hear his persistent cries of dismay. You’d think he’d accept his fate, but no, he’d bark hours on end. The hag had the nerve to be pissed at noise complaints too. Don’t recall if he was taken from her, but I think it stopped eventually.
- Comment on More chickens! 3 days ago:
My childhood neighbour (great aunt or whatever around some corners, we called her auntie even if she technically wasn’t) had hens. Their rooster was fairly chill, but unfortunately mortal and eventually supplanted by a younger. That cunt was a genuine asshole, about what you’d expect from a young cock without anyone to trim his wings (figuratively, but also literally - mate could jump up to a kid’s eye level with them things).
Where his predecessor had come to know us and tolerated us near the hens, the young punk was out for fucking blood. Whether he was jealous that the hens would come running to us, whether he thought he needed to protect them from what they clearly didn’t see as threat or whether he was trying to play the tough guy in front of his chicks, I don’t know. Bottom line, we stopped visiting the hens.
And I’d still take him over geese.
- Comment on Keeping my promise to Zephyr 3 days ago:
When I was a kid, there was a food truck we’d occasionally visit, where the vendor would address us as Chief. “Good afternoon, chief, what’ll it be?” “Coming right up, chief” “Here you go, chief” “Have a great day, chief!”
I loved it as a kid. Not sure how I’d feel about it today, but it absolutely was an effective contribution to us going back there frequently.
- Comment on Do you know examples of mistranslations of in-game dialog from cutscenes via subtitles whilst playing in another language? 1 week ago:
I stopped playing games in German for that exact reason, at least initially. I didn’t even care about lip sync initially (that was more a thing with movies).
By now, it has become a matter of habit, with very few exceptions that are originally German-made and have reasonable texts (like the X series of space sims or the older Anno titles). For a time, I also held on to games I’d played in German initially because I couldn’t bring myself to trade away nostalgia (like Skyrim, which I eventually switched to English for mods).
By now, I wonder how many translations might be shoddy AI slop without any native or at least deeply immersed editor to look it over.
What little contact I do have these days is because my wife tends to play in German and I occasionally catch a translation. I’ll have to check the game she’s currently playing again to look for examples, but I recall shaking my head a few times.
- Comment on "influencers" are setting us back 1 week ago:
I have a Spinnie-sense for when people are confused about our language, but whether you were curious was a lucky guess. Volltreffer (“Full hit”; bullseye), it seems.
- Comment on "influencers" are setting us back 1 week ago:
For the non-Germans who want to know the source of the confusion: It’s basically the same sentence structure in German meaning something different than in English.
to has distinct meanings in “I want to listen to them” and “you should stop to listen to them”. In the first sentence, it’s effectively an article for the activity “listen to them”. In the second sentence, it implies an intent, which could be made explicit like “stop in order to listen to me”.
English uses the progressive (“stop listening”) to disambiguate with words like stop. German instead uses an additional preposition “um” for the intent meaning of to.
(In this case, the meaning difference between “interrupting something” and “stop for good” also has different words, “anhalten” and “aufhören”).
Word for word, “Aufhören zuzuhören” would mean “stop to listen”, but actually means “stop listening” while “stop to listen” would be correctly translated as “anhalten, um zuzuhören”.
- Comment on This week on Windows... 1 week ago:
I guess there is a kind of disaster affinity that keeps people watching out for the newest ways in which it is?
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
I mean, there’s no real individual contract negotiation. The conditions are standardised by the framework agreement. They use a standard format where they note what pay class you’re paid by according to that agreement and that’s that.
I understand the desire and reasoning to separate into “deserves the benefits of our negotiaton” and “doesn’t support us, doesn’t get anything”. For my employer, the potential advantage of individual contracts doesn’t seem to offset the added effort, so they just throw the rest in with the majority.
As for negotiating power, last time they announced a one-day warning strike after a round of negotiations failed, our CEO was quick to pay out a lump sum to everyone and assure us that they’re committed to finding a fair solution and all. Allegedly, he wasn’t actually opposed to the union’s proposition, but as I said, it’s sector-wide so other employers have to agree as well and apparently didn’t. Still, that even the threat produced a reaction (and there was no full strike after it either) indicates that the union has plenty of power.
I think many of us are aware that, member or not, we wouldn’t have these benefits if we didn’t have the union and just sign up on principle. Most of the sector is blue-collar, and I assume that a majority of them are indeed members.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Idk, isn’t arranging different employment contracts for employees and non-employees kinda difficult? You’d have to set up a new contract when someone joins or leaves the union.
To be clear, the overarching part the union is responsible for is a framework agreement defining paygrades, holidays and such for all the employees in the sector.
I fudged and conflated the workers’ council with the union, because ultimately, they have similar objectives in protecting workers and my point was to emphasise that good worker representation makes for a stable and pleasant enough working environment.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Unions are awesome.
I’m working in the IT department of a heavily unionised non-IT company. The contracts the union negotiates with that company (and others in the same sector) apply to all employees in those companies, including those who aren’t themselves union members.
I gotta say, pay might be better elsewhere, but I don’t have to fight for a yearly salary increase. I also don’t worry about being sick. I don’t worry about performance, because they’re not allowed to monitor it. I don’t worry about getting everything done in time either. If I’m overworked, I tell my boss and he has to see about reducing my load. Sure, might just be a good boss, but I’m pretty sure it’s also a workplace culture resulting from knowing we can’t be fired without good reason, and poor performance isn’t one (and might also land you in trouble for monitoring performance).
Many of my coworkers have been there for 20+ years, through ups and downs and management changes and structural changes and all. It’s a good, reliable employer, and a solid union helps keep it that way.
- Comment on What's a word for "I actively endorse it for others even though I dislike it”? 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on What's a word for "I actively endorse it for others even though I dislike it”? 2 weeks ago:
Maybe try German.
Not sure I could construct a “plausible” single word either. The best two-word-phrase I could come up with would be “Gönnendes Desinteresse”.
Apparently “Gönnen” has no simple, positive translation when applied to others. To yourself, it’s indulging in something, allowing oneself to have something. Applied to others, it means anything from a lukewarm “I don’t begrudge you (thing)” over “I’ll let you have (thing)” (in the sense of “I’ll let you have that victory”), a more explicitly approving “I think you deserve (thing)” to a cordial “I’m happy for you to have (thing)”.
So basically, it means some form of “Disinterest while approving of others having something”. I suppose the missing piece is having a single word for “I think others should have this thing”.
- Comment on Men against bush 2 weeks ago:
Right? It grows if you don’t do anything about it. That’s basically the definition of natural.
If they don’t find it attractive, they could just say so. It’s a subjective taste. Stand by it.
- Comment on Men against bush 2 weeks ago:
I mean, according to a research paper published by Brandeis University and its sources, the whole “women need to be shaved” thing was started by Gillette to sell razors, correlates with perceiving women as younger and a tendency to fetishise youth
Considering the evolutionary roots, men should feel attracted to female body hair, as it is a secondary sexual characteristic, such as breast size and waist to hip ratio, and hence a sign of sexual maturity and ability to procreate. […]
Biologically, sexually mature females have body hair, but society has made femininity more connected to youth and pre-pubescence than to a woman’s ability to reproduce.
So if you like them unshaved, that’s natural (but no longer normal). If you like them shaved, that’s normal (but not natural).
And if you don’t like them at all, you’re lucky to sidestep that question.
- Comment on Hbd 2 uu 2 weeks ago:
I wonder what they worship there…
Coleus Sanctus, in the heart of the night
Coleus Sanctus, mighty arm in the fight
Coleus Sanctud, holy sanctum of men Ave Maria— Powerwolf, Coleus Sanctus (2013); a song about the Holy Scrotum
- Comment on Me after Jerboa announced it is ending support 2 weeks ago:
asking a little much of users to start direct dowloading apks or whatever to get their leftist shitposting app
I mean, if you’re serious about ideology, you probably won’t mind taking a few extra steps for it. If the status quo pisses you off, why not do something that’s ultimately still free and only takes a little more time?
- Comment on Aha! 4 weeks ago:
I’m not sure many people were dental guinea-pigs though. Sucks that you got fucked by it though.
- Comment on Buzz off 4 weeks ago:
Got stung as a stupid kid who found a few piles of dead branches you could bounce on like a trampoline. Yeah, turns out one of them had a nest underneath, and the tenants weren’t quite happy with the upstairs neighbour partying so hard the ceiling came down.
Absolutely my fault, no question about it, and my only feeble defense is “I didn’t know”.
My issue is now, that I struggle with seizing up in panic if I know (or think) there is one mear me. Not the “shrieking trying to run away” kind of panic, just freezing in place, struggling to breathe or move. I can’t chase them away or anything, even if they were docile and harmless enough.
- Comment on Why exactly are nursing aids paid so poorly? 4 weeks ago:
- the original tweet could’ve been written with this mindset (which, I should add, is the dominant mindset, btw), and should be taken at face value
- many of the readers will have this mindset, and will not have the theoretical tools on their belt to appreciate it for the rhetorical device it is, much less take advantage of it and learn something (they might walk away with anything ranging from “huh that is weird” to “it’s those darned republicans/democrats”)
Those are good points I didn’t consider.
On the first, I tend to lean towards assuming the best of people where possible, mostly because it helps stave off defeatism. That doesn’t make it likely, just less depressing.
On the second, I genuinely didn’t see that angle. Thanks for pointing it out. They don’t need to appreciate it as rhetorical device (and in fact, it may be more effective if they’re not conscious of it), but if it leads them to make up their own conclusions to reinforce existing assumptions, instead of being curious and open-minded, that would indeed miss the mark.
I guess to some degree, it’ll be a “shotgun” approach to hopefully get some people curious, even if you’ll never get everyone. I’m not sure a more direct statement of facts would have gotten the others either.
In either case, making an explanation (there’s more than one) explicit is useful, if only to open up space for people to disagree with the explanation.
That’s the conclusion I was aiming for, yes. In thr context of the device, the question is a setup and framing for the answer. By “prompting” for it, it seems less like preaching (which may turn people away) and more like a “genuine” and natural conversation. Interviews are occasionally framed in a similar way, but with an open question on the internet, it may seem less “staged” if that makes sense?
(I’m not sure those are the best words to describe it, but I can’t put my finger on the nuances so I’ll just call it a vocab/language barrier)
In fact I’d be willing to bet that the person who wrote the tweet disagrees with my explanation, specifically the part involving flavors of capitalism. I bet they’re advocating for something like the nordic model.
The Nordic model tends to be idealised to some degree. I understand how it would look like a significant improvement over some other forms, particularly the US, and I’ll freely admit I’m also subject to bias, but it can’t cure all the problems baked into the system.
From the glimpses I’ve caught, it doesn’t seem to solve all social issues either. The specific example I’ve heard of is racism, but I didn’t do a thorough investigation about other effects. Then again, I’m not sure I have a good solution on hand to effectively shift cultural stances like that either.
- Comment on Why exactly are nursing aids paid so poorly? 4 weeks ago:
It’s a rhetorical device I forgot the name of. If I say “I don’t understand X”, that will have one of two effects on most people: either they also don’t know, realise that and hopefully get curious, or they do and know the point I’m aiming for. If they offer that explanation, it creates a Socratic approach to making an argument: Framing it as an explanation of a question the rest of the audience is hopefully also curious about.
You explanation is the second part of the argument.
- Comment on Bee Brushie 4 weeks ago:
I’ll take the kittens. I’ll lose, but it’s a more dignified death than seizing up in panic and not even being able to defend myself.
- Comment on Pride month 5 weeks ago:
…and there goes my boner
- Comment on Title 5 weeks ago:
They’re overrated anyway. The true art of siegecraft will always be in the earthworks.
- Comment on i'm fucking devastated but there are no exception 1 month ago:
Yeah, I figured. I just found the contrast striking when my own church was the least segregated place I knew for most of my childhood.
- Comment on i'm fucking devastated but there are no exception 1 month ago:
since the church is still the most racially segregated place in America
Unrelated to the rest of your comment, I find this observation perplexing. In Germany, the church I went to had close ties to several African communities. I loved their joyful, passionate style of worship-parties, more than what I learned of other churches in Germany. The Africans I knew at that church (refugees) were some of the kindest, loveliest people I’ve known. I’d credit that as being one of the good things I took from my faith: Growing up in frequent contact with different cultures and in a spirit of appreciation, I wasn’t even conscious of the concept of racism.
My mom once told me that, when she’d been babysitting a friendly couple’s son and pushing him in the stroller on a walk, she got evil looks from some people. For the longest time, I assumed that was just because it was apparent that we had come from different fathers and people thought we were both hers.
In middle or high school, when I learned about it from history class, the concept seemed so alien to me, like a relic of the past… until I realised that my primary school had one black kid, who was bullied (and a bit violent at times, which I’d now attribute to trauma from fleeing an active warzone coupled with facing racism in a fairly conservative town) while my secondary school had none, mostly upperclass “white” with a few other “white”-adjacent (Italian, Russian) ethnicities.
The idea that this childhood friend might have drawn evil looks because he was black hit me years later like a freight train of shattered childhood innocence.
(As an aside, that friend once declared that he’s dark chocolate and I’m white chocolate and if that isn’t the sweetest thing, I don’t know what is.)
- Comment on Vibe management 1 month ago:
My favourite quote about analytics:
“A measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure.”
- Comment on 1 month ago:
I mean,
NaNimplies there exists some value, it’s just not a numerical one.nulldays there is none at all.