AnarchistArtificer

@AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨so cozy 🐟⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago⁩:

  And Steve probably wouldn’t blame you for that either. He’d just try to soften your heart by being his usual, earnestly enthusiastic self.

  Damn, this thread (and replying to your comment in particular) just hit me with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. I’m so glad that I got to grow up at the time when I did, because now I have the privilege of grieving for Steve Irwin. Steve will always be a part of my fond childhood memories.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve found that I actually seem to use more em-dashes since they became understood to be associated with AI — it’s a defiance thing. I mostly type on my phone, and to type an em dash, I just need to long press on the dash.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Hole⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d rather see multiple comments giving the same safety advice if it means people are more likely to be able to see it.

  Telling kids “you’re only allowed to dig a hole that’s at least as wide as it is deep” is likely to go over a lot better than “you’re not allowed to dig a deep hole because it’s unsafe”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just one more square bro⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Basically just to see if they can. We can think of the problem from multiple angles. The general problem is: “if we have a larger square with side length of a, what’s the maximum number of smaller squares (with side length of b) that we can fit into that larger square?”. If we have a larger square with side length of 4, then we can fit 16 squares in. If the larger square had a side length of 5, then we can fit 25 squares in. So this means that if we want a neat packing solution, and we can control how large the outer square is (in relation to the inner squares), then we want each side of the larger square to be a whole number multiple of the smaller square’s side length.

  But what if that isn’t our goal? The fact that packing 25 squares into a 5x5 square is an optimal packing solution with no spare space means that it will be impossible to fit 25 smaller squares into a square that’s less than 5x5 large. But what about if we do have awkward constraints, and the number of smaller squares we have to pack isn’t a square number? The fact that this weird packing solution in the OP has 17 squares isn’t because 17 is prime, but rather that 17 is 1 more than 16 (it’s just that 17 happens to be prime).

  This is a long way of saying that because packing 16 squares into a square is easy, the natural next question is “how large does the larger square need to be to be able to pack 17 squares into it?”. If this were a problem in real life where I had to pack 17 squares into a physical box, most people would just get a box that’s at least 5x5 large, and put extra packing material into all the spare space. But asking this question in terms of “what’s the smallest possible box we could use to pack 17 squares in?” is basically just an interesting puzzle, precisely because it’s a bit nonsensical to try to pack 17 squares into the larger square. We know for certain we need a box that’s larger than 4x4, and we also know that we can do it in a 5x5 box (with a heckton of spare space), so that gives us an upper and lower bound for the problem — but what’s the smallest we could use, hypothetically?

  As a fellow autistic person, I relate to your confusion. But I’d actually wager that there were a non-zero number of autistic people who were involved in this research. It sort of feels like “extreme sports” for autistic people — doing something that’s objectively baffling, precisely because it feels so unnatural and wrong

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just one more square bro⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The optimisation objective is to fit n smaller squares (in this case, n=17) into the larger square, whilst minimising the size of the outer square. So that means that in this problem, the dimensions of the outer square isn’t a thing that we’re choosing the dimensions of, but rather discovering its dimensions (given the objective of "minimise the dimensions of the outer square whilst fitting 17 smaller squares inside it)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just one more square bro⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh my God, I fucking love this. I mean, I absolutely hate that this is the optimal way to pack 17 squares into a larger square such that the size of the larger square is minimised. However, I love that someone went to the effort of making a waffle iron plate for this. High effort shitposts like this give me life

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you think might happen if Luigi Mangione isnt found guilty?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  For his sake, I really hope he did do it. I mean, being imprisoned as he is would suck regardless, but it would suck extra hard if he didn’t do it

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon makes a wish⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, and I find it funny precisely because of the stretching to make the labels — it makes it feel like it’s making fun of people who would unironically call things fake and gay in a manner that was nihilistic and homophobic.

  It’s similar to how I hate the “git gud” gatekeeping that can be quite prominent amongst fans of games like Dark Souls. However, I take great joy in saying “git gud” in a context where it’s patently absurd, like when my housemate arrives home completely drenched from torrential rain. It turns the joke back on the gatekeepy rhetoric

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You have to appreciate the artist's attention to detail.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe they were working from a reference photo that had the balls be visible, and they felt it’d be weirder to not include them

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is thus true?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for sharing this info, because you’ve given me some interesting ideas to ponder. My personal craft domain is garment making, and in recent years, I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring stuff that exists in the space between “clothing” and “costume”. I don’t have much experience in 3D printing, so the stuff about 3D printing flexible materials like TPU is new to me. I should explore this more, because I bet I could make some awesome stuff with this method (such as in corsetry)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is thus true?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a big part of why I love being in community with furries, despite not being one myself.

  I’ve done a lot of bespoke clothing making — mostly for myself, but occasionally I’ve done things on commission. People are often astounded at how much high quality craftsmanship costs when the skilled labour is properly compensated.

  I once wore a €20,000 dress (it was rented for me by a girlfriend so I could attend a swanky event with her). Before we went out, I was poring over all the construction details, desperate to learn all I could from this absurd scenario I had found myself in. I remember feeling weirdly dismayed to learn that there wasn’t a single thing in that dress that would be beyond my own skill level. Instead, it was just countless little hand finished details that must’ve taken an inordinate amount of time and care to do. For example, all the seam allowances catch stitched down (whenever they weren’t fully enclosed in a french seam or similar). Truly high quality items take time, and can’t be easily automated. Sure, there are components that can be optimised with computers or machines, but it requires a skilled human to actually integrate all this into the completed piece.

  I have a friend who uses to draw furry porn, and she said she found the experience to be super artistically liberating, because for the first time in her artistic career, she had people haggling her prices up, because she was way underpricing her works. On average, furries seem to have a greater level of respect for the time and skill that goes into making custom things, which I love. My friend is now making art in a domain that’s closer to her own personal artistic interests, but she says that she will always cherish the time she spent in the furry community, because it gave her the confidence she needed to advocate for the value of her art and her skills when she was chasing her dreams.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is thus true?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is so cool. Shit like this is why I love being in community with furries, despite not being one myself. I’m always awed by the creativity

  (Plus furries always throw the best parties)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Liminal Space⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That problem is very much one that’s beyond the domain of scientists. That’s like saying “All I want literature to do is decipher the genetic basis of cancer”. Trust me, if science were able to cure billionaires, it would.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When DinoCon is doing more than the US Gov⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Science without morals and ethics leads to amazing developments, but often misguided or twisted understanding, and unbridled human suffering.”

  Exactly this. I see way too many scientists who may not be actively bad people, but they convince themselves that it’s possible to do science in an apolitical manner.

  I believe that science is able to get as close to objectivity as is possible to achieve. However, individual scientists can never be objective, and the more they think of themselves in that way, the less objective the resulting science is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The sun is a deadly laser...⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s analogous to a combined count of how many people have commented on the post, or shared it (or “reblogged”, to use the Tumblr term). It might also include likes? I only use Tumblr occasionally so I’m not sure.

  I don’t know why Tumblr counts things like this. I sort of like it though — it makes it feel like a distinct place. Tumblr hasn’t escaped enshittification, but it makes me happy that it still exists as a little pocket of weirdos

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Save as PDF⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Next time someone asks me what PDF stands for, this is what I will tell them

  (I’m reflecting on how many times I’ve been asked what PDF stands for, because my comment would suggest it is a thing that happens often.

  Doofensmirtz_meme.jpeg: “if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me what PDF stood for, I’d have two nickels. — which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice”

  I think I’m just most people’s token techy friend. Or more specifically, I’m the techy friend who also knows loads of random shit and really enjoys answering random questions)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Save as PDF⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s sort of like saying “I’m overheating because my apartment is 32ᵒC, let’s turn on the heating and see how we feel once it’s 45ᵒC”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bet⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Various words and phrases I have adopted ironically over the years, that have mostly lost their ironic sense:

  • Yeet (this is the big one. Whenever I throw something, or see someone else throw a thing, my brain goes “Yeet!”)
  • Get rekt (gaming slang)
  • Aura-farming (originally from anime, I think. It sort of means being very cool
  • I gotcha fam
  • Mate (this is an outlier because it’s not so much new slang, but it’s new to me. Your mind may default to an Australian accent when reading this, but the vibe is more “working class shit hole in Northern England” (in other words, home <3 ))
  • Vibe (despite my use of this word never being ironic, it’s probably worth mentioning too, due to how often I use it. I use it so frequently that I’m puzzled about what I did before this word entered my lexicon)
  • [Noun]-maxing (originally stems from “looks-maxing”, which means putting effort into looking very good. This isn’t a term I use frequently yet, but I’m trying to use it more, in order to annoy a friend. For example, when she took 3 bathroom breaks during movie night, I said that she was “piss-maxing”. I do love knowing someone well enough that you know how to cause them psychic damage. Ahh, friendship)

  I felt like there were more when I started this list, but I can’t remember any now

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Taste the flavor⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I love the fact that you wrote this in a science meme sub. I like getting learning alongside my memes

  (I’m a biochemist, so I didn’t learn anything in this particular instance, but I frequently find my day brightened by helpful people like yourself, who take the time to explain stuff)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Even their fish are fucked up⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a friend who uses snuff tobacco, and occasionally she’ll add some cocaine to it — she calls it “spicy snuff”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Add some artistic flair, ffs!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Taking nudes is really difficult. I’ve never taken nudes per se, but recently I was trying to take some photos that included my body, whilst wearing some sexy clothing. That shit takes some skill.

  One tip that I discovered is that using your phone’s regular camera rather than your front facing camera makes a big difference. To get this right, you ideally need to use a mirror so that you can see what’s on your screen as you’re getting the angles right. I found that positioning my phone higher and pointing it slightly downwards was best. Finding a way to securely position my phone to make this work was a bitch.

  If you’re using your backward facing camera, then you’ll probably need to set your phone to take the image on a timer. Alternatively some smart watches can be used to trigger the photograph without you having to get up from your sexy pose to press the button on your phone (which risks knocking your phone out of position). Alternatively, once you’ve found the right angle and pose, you can try taking a video of you posing and then extracting frames from that video later.

  The experience left me with a greater level of respect for people who take good nudes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Y'all got one, right?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Impressive dedication. Do you have an important task to do that you’re currently procrastinating? Whenever I show similar levels of commitment to answering trivial questions, that’s what is usually driving me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon wants to talk about video games⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely. If you’re able to get that many hours into a game, it probably makes it an autistic game.

  Though as I typed that, I realised my mom has an ungodly number of hours in Candy Crush, and she definitely doesn’t play that in an autistic manner (she’s just depressed and doesn’t have any friends)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon wants to talk about video games⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to have a partner who was very into sim racing. I spent a long time being affectionately perplexed at her for it. We once drove a long way to pick up a sim racing wheel that I found on eBay for her. I remember when I tried it out, I was impressed, but in the rather chill way that one would expect from someone who wasn’t invested in sim-racing.

  Y’all are silly, but I am glad you have something you care enough about that it makes you this silly. I don’t see it, and it baffles me, but I love the energy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨cats are so silly⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Stimming

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do people eat this?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I quite like Yorkshire puddings.

  But I agree, British cuisine is pretty beige in vibe

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's barely a science.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I think I’d agree with that. Although it’s gotten large enough that it doesn’t feel like a subset of sociology anymore, it still feels descended from sociology. (To give an example of what I mean by being large enough it’s now distinct from sociology, biochemistry sprang forth from biology/biomedicine, but now is its own distinct field, with methods and modes of inquiry that are distinct from biology/biomedicine)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's barely a science.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This is an interesting perspective. I feel like I disagree with you, but I don’t know why. Whenever I feel like this, it usually means that there is some interesting learning ahead of me if I am willing to chew on some ideas for a while, so thanks for writing this comment

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's barely a science.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Something that I often end up ranting about when I’ve had a few drinks at the pub is how I wish that all science education included some philosophy. I don’t mean as a brief, one off unit, but actually woven throughout.

  I actually got really into learning about the philosophy of science because I found this insufficiency became apparent when learning about machine learning systems in the context of bioinformatics and protein structure prediction. There were some absolutely brain-dead takes in papers that seemed to believe that big data methods have the potential of basically removing scientists from the process of science. Fortunately, there were also papers that called this out as nonsense, because expert knowledge is more important than ever in building and using machine learning systems.

  Shout out to Sabine Leonelli, author of Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study, which was the book I read that looked at this in detail. Her work is what really cemented my passion for the philosophy of science, and got me into philosophy more generally.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's barely a science.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that economics is a science, but contrary to the insistence of many economists I have known, it is absolutely a soft science. This is not a pejorative (though I reluctantly admit that I used to view it as such). My view is that economists would be wise to learn from their fellow social scientists in other fields. That would do a lot to help improve the rigour of economics.

  You raise an interesting point, but there’s more to science than just measuring stuff. Most of my beef with economics comes from how economists react when their model’s predictions don’t align with reality. If a physicist’s theory makes incorrect predictions, then there’s not really much wiggle room to explain away the problem. If a psychologist’s theory makes predictions that aren’t correct, then my impression is that “explaining away” errors by gesturing at additional complexities not able to be accounted for is a much more acceptable thing to happen. This isn’t necessarily bad, but rather seems to be a part of how knowledge production happens in the social sciences.

  I can’t comment too much on the specifics, as I am very much not a social scientist. Like I said above though, I have come around from looking down on these fields. In fact, I’ve come to appreciate them precisely because the skills used in the soft sciences are so alien to me. Economics uses a heckton of quantitative methods, but the phenomena they study are fundamentally social in nature, and thus they reduce the utility of their work by trying to distance themselves from the social sciences