cynar
@cynar@lemmy.world
- Comment on UK judge’s decision not to jail boys for rape like a ‘rock in my face’, says victim, 16 6 days ago:
ADHD could have some bearing, if it was something quick and impulsive. Premeditation makes it even more damning however.
Either way, it’s not an excuse, just a factor to account for in corpus mentis decisions.
- Comment on How come assassinations went away for the most part? Why send a bunch of god fearing young kids into a battle the upper class started or wanted when clipping one leader would stop it? 1 week ago:
I’d argue they didn’t, they just changed.
There are 2 groups worth noting. Government and private.
Government assassination is still a thing. Israel has used it aggressively over the last few decades. There are also signs that china has too. That’s just off the top of my head. It’s also worth noting that drone strikes etc can fill the same roll as an assassin.
Private has definitely changed. I suspect the high profile assassinations have stopped. Low level ones just had to get a lot better at not looking like assassinations. The ever classic boating accident being a good example.
The change is mostly from improvements in policing. You can no longer just move to another city to escape the law.
- Comment on An 82-year-old YouTuber grandma was raided by police and SWATs during her live stream last night where she plays Minecraft to raise money for her grandsons cancer. Authorities brought 20 police cars 1 week ago:
Agreed on that. Though in the scale of the UK there aren’t that many cases. The ones there are however, are (deliberately) high profile. It has a chilling effect on the population, without needing to use it much.
They also hamstring the bobbies via the budget assignments. I know a lot of forces would love to get rid of some of the more overtly racist/sexist/other-ist officers. Their budget limits wages however, which limits the selection of replacements. They end up having to try and weed out the ringleaders (to fire or retire) and split the followers up.
The long and the short, most of the police are working class and do the job to try and make our country better. Some are even trying to counter the bullshit rolling down from on high.
- Comment on Why does it feel like most art museums are for adults and most science museums are for kids? 1 week ago:
So are a lot of scientists.
- Comment on An 82-year-old YouTuber grandma was raided by police and SWATs during her live stream last night where she plays Minecraft to raise money for her grandsons cancer. Authorities brought 20 police cars 1 week ago:
The UK force has its problems, but it functions fairly well. It also has a lot of people in it who honestly want to do a good job.
The problem is the rules and mandates coming down from the government. (And the political upper management level of the police)
- Comment on An 82-year-old YouTuber grandma was raided by police and SWATs during her live stream last night where she plays Minecraft to raise money for her grandsons cancer. Authorities brought 20 police cars 1 week ago:
America has “police by intimidation” as its default response. Most of Europe seems to have “police by consent” as the default.
It leads to a different mentality. They might still roll out the whole cavalry, but it will more likely be led by a polite knock at the door, and an initial attempt to de-escalate.
- Comment on Majority of Britons would back a smoking ban in pub gardens 2 weeks ago:
The problem is a race to the bottom happens. Smokers tend to drink more and are quite… militant in their opinions on where to go. Basically non smoking pubs would suffer, and so likely allow smoking, ruining it for everyone else.
It doesn’t help that those left smoking cigarettes, in the UK, tend to be the rudest, most inconsiderate of the original group. The average heroin addict is considerably more polite than the average cigarette smoker now.
- Comment on Aaaaaaaaaa 5 weeks ago:
It can be formed, just not in the vast quantities it was back then. It requires unusual conditions to stop fungi making a meal out of it, before it gets buried deep enough.
- Comment on Double Plug Experiment 1 month ago:
The ring around it makes that less likely, though still plausible. It would also have to leach through the paint.
- Comment on Double Plug Experiment 1 month ago:
Most likely.
The box tends to sit slightly proud of the wall. When they plaster it in (particularly retroactively) they need to build up the plaster around the socket.
Thicker plaster means more insulation, and less condensation. Less condensation, less mold.
The ring around the socket also supports this. The edge where the new plaster gives way to the old. That point tends to be rougher, and so more prone to capturing mold.
It could also be thicker paint causing the same effect. Most people do the wall with rollers, but sockets with a brush, leading to a thicker coat.
- Comment on Real 1 month ago:
Abnormalities from “normal” were a critical self defence feature, for our ancestors. E.g. a lack, or change, of bird song might indicate a predator in ambush. Unusual lighting might indicate a storm coming in.
Our brains are wired to learn normal patterns. When those patterns change completely, we are fine with it. When they change subtly we don’t like it.
The threshold for this is different for different people. Personally, I’m fine with completely different maps, but off put by modified real maps. I also cannot watch soap operas, they are too close to “real” and trip alarms at their mismatches. Conversely, sci-fi and fantasy are fine, they are different enough to not set off my alarms. I know others who are set off by sci-fi, but soaps are within their norms.
- Comment on DOES ANYONE 2 months ago:
It’s on steam. The challenge levels are great for learning about weird moves and tactics.
- Comment on DOES ANYONE 2 months ago:
Bishops are terrifying in that game. I’ve lost more than a few to a retrograde checkmate.
For those confused, bishops step through 2 dimensions at a time. In a normal chess game, that is X&Y, making them move diagonally. In 5D chess it can be X &T, letting it check a king in the past. Since a king in the past can’t move, it’s a checkmate.
- Comment on send thoughts and peer review 2 months ago:
There’s some evidence that mammals never lost the ability. Unfortunately, our scarring response is massively faster and locks wounds down.
A few years back, they engineered mice to lack a gene, to find out what it did. Initially, someone got in trouble for not properly marking the modified mice (via holes in their ears). They later discovered the holes healed completely, including regenerating fur etc.
Unfortunately, it also makes recovery from larger wounds difficult, since without a scarring response they don’t close quickly.
- Comment on Nuclear energy enjoyers vindicated again after the rise in oil and gas prices. 2 months ago:
Combustion engines will likely have a place for a long time. Large equipment just doesn’t do well on battery power. They can’t get the required runtime. Also, in places where they are used, electrical power is often limited.
Hydrocarbons are an excellent way of storing energy. We will also need to overproduce renewables, to keep grids stable. Synthetic hydrocarbons could be a good solution to both issues. Currently, they are nowhere close to competing with fossil fuels, but that will change in time.
- Comment on Call off King's US state visit over Iran war, urge Lib Dems 2 months ago:
Likely true.
I can still hope that there are some people with a bit of integrity, willing to rattle the cages, when they can.
- Comment on Call off King's US state visit over Iran war, urge Lib Dems 2 months ago:
It’s easy to prove he shared the files. It’s harder to prove (legal proof) that he raped children. It’s akin to Al Capone being convicted of tax fraud.
I’m personally hoping it’s a “shake the tree” charge. By going after a royal, they will hopefully unnerve others with similar material in the files. They can then potentially use plea deals on those to go after the bigger fish.
- Comment on How to I prove to someone that the U.S. moon landing wasn't staged? 2 months ago:
It perplexed me quite a lot. I think it was the only way he could mentally maintain his worldview.
Dealing with that mindset is exhausting. I try and keep an open mind. Unfortunately it’s possible to have it so open your brain falls out.
- Comment on How to I prove to someone that the U.S. moon landing wasn't staged? 2 months ago:
I lost a good friend a similar way. He insisted there was a global conspiracy to suppress “free energy” (over unity generators), among other things.
My background allowed me to personally prove some of his arguments wrong from almost first principles. He then accused me of personally being part of the conspiracy. At that point I concluded he was a lost cause and parted ways.
Most of his “evidence” was in YouTube videos. I went through a couple. It mostly had the build-up, explanation, consequences, and conclusions. It missed any actual evidence. It’s amazing how someone can fill 2 hours with nothing of substance.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
The energy to spontaneously create a planet is vastly more than a brain. Then again, with the weird maths of infinities, it might play out.
Though to recreate the full illusion would require something closer to the big bang itself.
It’s well into the “here he dragons” realms of science however. Speculating well beyond reliable evidence.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
Our best ideas on the big bang put the universe as huge, but finite in space. (Way bigger than the observable universe) The question is time. If time is infinite then Boltzmann brains win.
Matter has a finite life, energy differentials run out. Stars run out of fuel. Black holes evaporate. Even protons eventually fall apart to energy. Then there is endless emptiness.
That emptiness would be finite in space, but infinite in time. Without that last boundary, weird things happen to maths.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
When the results are inseparable, then complexity is the only element, it doesn’t prove anything, but it does bias.
Also, most gods don’t fall into this debate. Most gods would be quite happy interfering. This is (in principle) distinguishable from the null. It was aimed primarily at the simulation hypothesis. A perfect simulation is indistinguishable from a base reality.
- Comment on Stubborn, maybe, but if it ain't broke 2 months ago:
It’s also a local maxima trap. To shift to chewing, they would have to change both bite behaviour, and teeth structure. The intermediate stage is a lot worse than either style.
Even if chewing was the better option, it’s inaccessible from the crocs current method.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
It’s not 3 points, but 4.
Atheist==>Theist Agnostic==>gnostic
There are agnostic atheists and agnostic theists.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
If things are not all equal, then we can slice off a section of the axiom, and start dissecting it, via science. The axiom only applies if things are exactly equal.
E.g. Gravity wave detectors have found oddities, just above the noise floor. These are likely equipment artifacts. They are also consistent with us being in a simulation, and us touching close to the resolution limit. If true (quite unlikely) then it would prove the axiom false.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
The logic is that the universe of big bang matter has a limited lifespan. This sets a hard limit on the number of humans via “normal” means.
Boltzmann brains are due to a quirk of quantum mechanics. Matter can come into existence spontaneously. The rate is proportional to the amount (technically the energy content). Given enough time and space, something that would fit the definition of human could spontaneously appear. The odds of this are unbelievably long, but, so long as it’s finitely large, in a true infinite universe it will happen an infinite number of times. It’s a bit of infinity Vs very large number weirdness.
End result is that there will be a large but finite number of “normal” humans, but an infinite number of Boltzmann brain humans. Therefore, the chances of being an actual “normal” human is effectively infinitesimal.
Agreed about it not mattering, day to day. It’s one of those things that is of interest to theoretical physicists, since it might tell us something interesting about the nature of our universe.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
It’s more reasonable via Occam’s razor (more complexity is less reasonable, when everything else is equal). However it is still just a belief axiom. You have to assume 1 holds.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
You say that, but, if the universe has an infinite lifespan (as current models suggest) then we would almost certainly be Boltzmann brains. (There would be an infinite amount of Boltzmann brains, but only a finite number of humans)
I personally believe I am not, and the universe actually exists, rather than a sensory/memory ghost.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
It’s useful to understand the mechanisms, it helps you to understand both what it can do, and its limitations. E.g. they can only mirror the parts they see or talk about. The parts of yourself that you hide away will be lost from their imperfect model.
For more info, it generally falls under “mirror neurons”. They help us empathise with others. E.g. when we smile, certain mirror neurons start firing. When we see someone smile, the same ones fire. We feel the appropriate emotions because of this. They also fire preemptively. E.g. when you hear your mother yelling about the mess, even though you’ve lived alone for a decade.
- Comment on big facts 2 months ago:
It’s an assumption, not an extrapolation. Assumptions, without evidence are beliefs.
We assume several unprovable axioms to allow science to function. A lot of work has also been done to collapse them down to the core minimum. What is left is still built on belief.
The fact that the results are useful back validates those beliefs. It doesn’t prove them however.