cypherpunks

@cypherpunks@lemmy.ml

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whales are Chinese⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  yep. (see my other comment in this thread)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whales are Chinese⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  another screenshot of a tweet, no link, no alt text, smh my head.

  imo science memes should link the science!

  Here is the paper from April which this tweet is actually referring to: royalsocietypublishing.org/…/The-phonology-of-spe…

  Unsurprisingly the tweet’s characterization of the research as finding whale language “structurally comparable to Chinese” is an exaggeration; they are actually saying it is similar to tonal languages and then using Mandarin as one example of a tonal language.

  here are the two paragraphs which actually mention Chinese

  > Human vowels consist of a sequence of glottal pulses produced by vocal folds. Whale codas consist of a sequence of clicks produced by vibrating phonic lips, which play a role similar to the human vocal folds [15]. In human languages, the frequency of glottal pulses corresponds to pitch—closely spaced glottal pulses give rise to a higher pitch, while more widely spaced pulses give rise to a lower pitch. In linguistics, tone refers to pitch as recruited to express linguistic meaning. Many languages use tone to distinguish between different words. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, the following four words differ only in their tonal contour, while having the same consonants and vowels [21]: high and level tone ma ‘mother’, rising tone má ‘hemp’, falling-rising tone ma ‘horse’ and falling tone mà ‘scold’. The coda types can therefore be compared to human tone: ‘regular’ coda types can be compared to level tones, codas with ‘increasing’ ICIs to falling tones and codas with ‘decreasing’ ICIs to rising tones. (However, our analogy has a limit: while in human languages, different tones can be associated with different meanings, the meanings conveyed by sperm whale codas have not been established.) In figure 1, the ‘F0’ (fundamental frequency) of each coda is represented with a blue line. > Beguš et al. [15] show that different coda vowel qualities can be instantiated on the same coda types and propose that coda type and coda quality are orthogonal [15]. This points to another parallelism between the sperm whale communication system and human language, as tone and vowel quality are often similarly orthogonal. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, the falling–rising tone may appear on any vowel, e.g. ma ‘horse’, ma ‘rice’ and ma ‘smear’. Orthogonality, in this case, is used to describe the independent mechanisms of production between the traditional timing or source features and the vocalic or filter features. In other words, the rate of vocal fold or phonic lip vibration can be independent of the shape of the resonant body (the vocal tract or the distal air sac), and both vowel types surface on several traditional coda types. However, while the production can be independent, there can still exist distributional patterns, where a vowel quality is more frequent on certain tones or some coda vowels are more common on certain traditional coda types. Our paper builds on Beguš et al.’s [15] findings and reveals further complexities within the system of sperm whale vocalizations.

  Here is an article about it: theguardian.com/…/sperm-whales-alphabet-vocalizat… …which also links this other fascinating news from the same lab from back in March theguardian.com/…/scientists-film-whale-giving-bi… (“This is the first evidence of birth assistance in non-primates”)

  finally here xcancel.com/kuso_otoko/…/2062224294835540161 is the tweet this post is a screenshot of, where you can find people in the replies already making the “met them at a very Chinese time in their life”, “that’s why japan hates them”, etc jokes 🙄

  note

  i’m definitely not working in China’s Cetacean Ops and trying to prevent the western world from finding out that whales are speaking Chinese, i swear

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cuba Libre 🇨🇺⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  the tweet this post is a screenshot of: xcancel.com/EmbaCubaUS/…/2060376971247337849

  the vaccine it is about: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racotumomab (trade name Vaxira)

• Why Anthropic’s ultra-dirty deal shouldn’t surprise you at allketanjoshi.co ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩ | ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨quick explanation⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Does that loop infinitely

  The first version I posted would loop infinitely… if you have infinite RAM, that is 🫠 (the string will reach 1KB after 30 iterations, and 1MB after 60, 2MB after 63, and so on).

  Fortunately the rate of memory consumption is not too fast because python string replacement is very slow when the string in the megabytes range, but due to your comment, to avoid eventually crashing someone’s computer if they fail to hit ctrl-c, i’ve now edited it to stop after 60 iterations.

  here is the original which will in fact run until it runs out of memory:

  python -c ‘import itertools as I,time as t;a=“o”;[(print(a),a:=a.replace(*[“o”,“O”,“8”,“oo”][i%3:i%3+2]),t.sleep(max(.3,1-(i/50))))for i in I.count()]’ if you don’t hit ctrl-c before consumes all of your RAM, you will be at the mercy of your operating system’s out-of-memory-killer… if it decides to kill something other than this python process you might have a bad time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨quick explanation⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  python -c ‘import sys,itertools as it,time as t;a=“o\n”;[(t.sleep( max(.3,1-(i/50))),sys.stdout.write(a),a:=a.replace(*[“o”,“O”,“8”,“oo”][i%3:i%3+2])) for i in it.count()]’

• quick explanationlemmy.ml ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨science_memes@mander.xyz⁩ | ⁨21⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨.ml has got to be the only place on earth where I'd get downvoted for a comment like this⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  colonies

  If you think China colonized Xinjiang, well… yeah, they did. But that was 22 centuries ago, a millennium before the [people now known as] Uyghurs had even arrived there. The demographics and ruling empires unsurprisingly changed a few times in the ensuing millennia, but since the Qing dynasty committed the Dzungar genocide there (from 1755–1758, with help of several peoples including Han and Uyghur) it has mostly remained a part of China.

  The ancient history is interesting, but more recent events (eg Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups the US was funding there) are more relevant to the present situation.

  I did watch the first three minutes. Everything he shows is true, everything he explains as interpretation is just full of shit.

  What specifically is he full of shit about? I recommend watching more than three minutes of it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Caption this.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “The eagles are coming!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨.ml has got to be the only place on earth where I'd get downvoted for a comment like this⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Here and here are two texts on the subject which cover some of the same things as that video (albeit not from a first-hand person-from-the-US-traveling-in-Xinjiang perspective like the video does).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨.ml has got to be the only place on earth where I'd get downvoted for a comment like this⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  i recommend this video by Eric Hovagim to learn more about the Uyghur topic (but i guess you’ll probably skip it based on its title?)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Uh well actually-⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It looks like they have an AI generate all of the valid images.

  Are you suggesting that the Voight-Kampff test is being administered by robots? shocked-pikachu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You know, you look like your head fell in the cheese dip back in 1957⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Wat

• You know, you look like your head fell in the cheese dip back in 1957lemmy.ml ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨memes@sopuli.xyz⁩ | ⁨10⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wriggidy wrekt⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  OK. Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period…

• The Intolerable Hypocrisy of Cyberlibertarianismmatduggan.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩ | ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Yup⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
  😱 + 🤮 = ...

  emojipedia emoji combiner combining 😱 with 🤮 (via)

• Mystery solvedlemmy.ml ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨memes@sopuli.xyz⁩ | ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• You don't have to use gyroelongationlemmy.ml ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨memes@sopuli.xyz⁩ | ⁨4⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨try out my AI agent bro, it'll change your life bro, I swear...⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  cropped screenshot of lower corner of OP’s screenshot, showing “✨ Made with AI” note

  screenshot of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith with the subtitle “Ironic”

  face the titular character of Matt Bors’ “Mister Gotcha” comic, full image linked below

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨cetacean⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  4-panel comic from pbfcomics.com with whales and speech bubbles. first panel has a whale saying: “Gentleman… our waters are in great danger.” Second panel: “Perhaps we should follow the path of the devonian sea creatures, and adapt to walk on land”. Third panel: no text. Fourth panel: a different whale says: “Barry. Shut the fuck up… seriously.”

  📎

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Good luck figuring it out since it also doesn’t come with man pages⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh ffs we’re calling the word “manual” a micro aggression now?

  sorry, did that trigger you? 🙄

  nobody called anything a microaggression or said anything about the non-abbreviated word manual; jokes about UNIX’s abbreviation of it being homonymous with the common noun man have existed since the man command was created.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Good luck figuring it out since it also doesn’t come with man pages⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  nb (short for nota bene) would actually be a good name for a modern replacement for the man command 😂

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is worried about AAA sales⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
  from the title i thought this was going to be about AAA batteries

  geordi-no en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_(video_game_industry) geordi-yes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy#Game_Boy_Pocket

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What actually is the 10-point proposal from Iran which Trump said is "workable basis on which to negotiate"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You asked a question and answered it yourself?

  I posted the 10 points according to one source and then said

  There are many varied but similar versions of these points circulating elsewhere

• What actually is the 10-point proposal from Iran which Trump said is "workable basis on which to negotiate"?lemmy.ml ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩ | ⁨21⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some people (i.e. white conservatives) think all Spanish speakers (especially native Spanish speakers) are Mexican?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  first, you’re in a country where this once happened 😬

  I am a white European Spanish woman

  Race is a social construct, and in the eyes and ears of your friend’s racist dad you are apparently not white (even if he might have classified you as white if he had only your appearance to go by and hadn’t seen your name).

  Here are a few somewhat relevant wikipedia articles:

  * en.wikipedia.org/…/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_th… * en.wikipedia.org/…/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_Unit… * en.wikipedia.org/…/Race_and_ethnicity_in_Latin_Am… * en.wikipedia.org/…/White_Hispanic_and_Latino_Amer… * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Latin_Americans#Being…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oddly specific.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  did an LLM get involved in your dictionary somehow? (why are four of these six definitions very minor rephrasings of each other?)

  Fwiw, the American Heritage Dictionary has only one definition; the other two are in wiktionary (which has citations for both).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  to all five of your questions: yes