HelixDab2

@HelixDab2@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some people say "I wouldn't want a government to dictate what I eat"? This would mean they'd be against food safety regulations, would it not?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It took a porn star dying after porn makers in the 2000s forced a horse to rape a woman

  Uh. You’re going to need to cite a source on that. I’m aware of a man that died after he was mounted by a horse, but AFAIK that was a case where the man was entirely willing because he some really fucked up fetishes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They finally patched racism⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, shit. I hadn’t known about Inquisition. I think the last time I saw them was something like 2016? At least I only have the one t-shirt. :(

  I haven’t heard anything about Agalloch; what’s going on there?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨do you think freewill truly exists?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You think you’re doing that. But are you? Or are things happening below the threshold of your consciousness, and your conscious brain thinks that it’s the one running the show? Consciousness would be like the toddler with the toy steering wheel that thinks it’s driving the car.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon measures up⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s so wild that girls would be hot for someone from Slipknot, but did Beefcake the Mighty or Jizzmak the Gusher ever get any fangirls? No. (Oderus, on the other hand… I guess the Cuttlefish of Cthulhu was what all the girls really wanted.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon measures up⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, Armin Meiwes went to prison for that, so…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨do you think freewill truly exists?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If the unconscious mind is making the decisions prior to cognition about the thing, how could our will alone affect it? It seems more likely that things outside of our direct control are changing how we are acting, and then the conscious part of ourselves creates the reason that we acted in a specific way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨do you think freewill truly exists?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  No. Last I knew, PET (?) scans appear to indicate that decisions are reached by your unconscious mind before they’re made by your conscious mind; the implication is that what you believe is you making a choice is actually you rationalizing a choice that’s been made through processes that you can’t directly see or affect. IF that’s correct, then people are quite deterministic, as long as you know all of the inputs.

  But on a practical, day-to-day basis, calling it ‘free will’ is a convenient fiction or shorthand. While free will may not exist, we largely believe that it does, and our perception of that in turn shapes our perception of reality. So it ends up not really mattering, strictly speaking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chicken breast steak medium-rare is the best kind of steak⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, it’s hard to find information about exact temperatures versus times. Usually the temperature that’s being used is the temp needed to immediately kill all solmonella bacteria, which is–depending on your source–145F-165F.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chicken breast steak medium-rare is the best kind of steak⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, I agree; makes me gag, and that takes some real effort.

  I’m not saying I would want to, just that you can.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

  I fail to see any downside to this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s statistically correct, but not specifically correct. It doesn’t tell you for certain that you, personally, have too much body fat (or too little fat/muscle), but it’s a good indicator.

  And that’s really what you’re looking at; you’re trying to figure out if you have more body fat than you should.

  Harpendens skin fold calipers–when used by a trained professional–will give you a more accurate measure of your overall body fat percentage. And InBody scale will measure bioelectrical impedance (essentially running a low-voltage current through you and measuring impedance) to give you a fairly accurate measure of your body fat percentage, but how well hydrated you are can significantly affect the reading. Hydrostatic underwater weighing was long been the gold standard for measuring body composition. BUT dual x-ray absorbiometry (DEXA) has overtaken it, because it’s significantly easier on the person being tested.

  That said, body fat alone doesn’t tell you if you are actually healthy. You can be fairly low in body fat, and have horrific cardiovascular fitness. And being exceptionally heavily muscled, (say, 200kg, at 7% body fat; Mr. Olympia levels of muscle) doesn’t appear to be healthy on your joints and heart either in the long term.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chicken breast steak medium-rare is the best kind of steak⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You can do that perfectly safely with chicken IF you cook it sous vide first. You could run it at 130F for about four hours before grilling it, and it would still look very raw, although the bacteria would all be dead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grieve with me⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Every time I’ve had that happen, it’s been the cable going bad, not the port.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump to sign executive order he says will slash drug prices by up to 80%⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No. It’s a basic silver PPO, and my employer would pay more per month than I do. And HDHP (bronze level) would have a higher individual deductible, and lower premiums.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump to sign executive order he says will slash drug prices by up to 80%⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The poor and middle class neeed large tax increases and the wealthy need to have their taxes lowered

  Good news, that’s what Trump is already doing.

  Our outcomes are not always worse. It’s a mixed bag.

  The only–ONLY–medical metric that we lead the world on is per capita spending on healthcare. In 2022, we spent an average of $15,222 per person in the US. The next worst country–Switzerland–spent about $8000 per capita. When you compare outcomes, Switzerland gets very nearly identical outcomes to the US, but spends far less per person. And Switzerland does NOT have single-payer healthcare. Canada spends $6000 per capita on healthcare coverage, and leads the US in most outcomes.

  would require much larger taxes on the middle and low class

  Yes, more in taxes, less (none) in paying premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. So as far as income in your pocket goes, and in terms of medical outcomes, you come out ahead in a single-payer system. Think about it for a second; what’s your annual deductible? The insurance I can get through my workplace has an annual deductible of $7000 per person. That means that, aside from visiting my GP, I need to spend $7000 before insurance covers anything at all. That’s on top of the $6500 I would have to pay in premiums. After I hit my deductible, insurance covers 80% of my costs, until I’ve paid a total of $11,000 out of pocket, then it covers everything. So I would have to pay at least $17,500 in a calendar year before insurance picked up everything. If I don’t have insurance because I can’t afford $250 every two weeks? Then I get the whole hospital bill for everything, which, in most cases, means people declaring bankruptcy. What I’m saying is that you can take that –OR– you can take $50 out of everyone’s paycheck (scaled to income level probably, and based on a risk pool of 330M people) and just be covered, period, no copays, no deductible, no worries that you’re gonna be bankrupted by a hit-and-run driver that sends you to the ER.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump to sign executive order he says will slash drug prices by up to 80%⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We pay far, far more, as a proportion of our income, for medical care than any other western country, and that’s when you consider the taxes that other countries pay. We also have, by far, the worst medical outcomes. Socialized healthcare costs less, and has better outcomes, than paying on your own or using private insurance, and allows for better control over ballooning healthcare costs.

  Your belief that it would cost more proves that you fundamentally don’t understand how medical care is priced. We’re paying Bugatti prices and getting Yugos. We have hundreds of insurance companies negotiating prices with thousands of medical groups, and a handful of massive pharmaceutical companies; they simply don’t have the leverage to control costs or negotiate better rates, and none of them have a risk pool large enough to make the costs truly cheap for every single person.

  And, BTW, yes, I AM in favor of raising taxes. On everyone. Because we deserve more from our gov’t than what we’re getting. Things like a public education system that works, criminal justice that isn’t for-profit and actually reforms people, infrastructure that isn’t crumbling, public services that are owned by the public, and so on. Privatising everything has been a disaster; we pay more and get less.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump to sign executive order he says will slash drug prices by up to 80%⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know what would really do that? What would ACTUALLY do that?

  Single-payer healthcare, AKA socialized medicine. Then you have the gov’t negotiating the price for ALL drugs for EVERYONE. That is exactly how every other first-world country does it, and that’s the reason why they all pay lower prices. Until 2022, with the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare wasn’t allowed to negotiate, and the IRA only allows the gov’t to negotiate some very high-dollar drugs.

  And executive order does abso-fucking-lutely nothing. EOs can–at best–only directly affect gov’t agencies. You can’t use an EO to force a private corporation to give you better prices.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨sus⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would have to look up names, but yes, all of the sex therapists and relationship counselors that I have personally heard talking about it specifically say that it’s a very advanced form of relationship, that it’s far, far more difficult than any conventional/monogamous relationship, and that most of the people doing them are doing them badly.

  Is that authoritative? No. There definitely could be selection bias in that the podcasts and interviews that I choose to listen to, and the articles that I choose to read, that touch on sex, sexuality, and relationships are also ones that will confirm my opinion. (And this opinion, BTW, did not exist before I was in a multiamorous relationship for about 3, maybe 4 years.) I like to think that I’m pretty open about sex, sexuality, and relationships, that I don’t assign any particular morality to any given practice, and that I look largely at how well people find their own individual needs being met within relationships rather than whether the structure is A or B. But, at the same time, I was raised in a culture that is primarily monogamous (often serially monogamous), and normalizes that style of relationship, so I might have unconscious implicit bias.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some good examples of "Where the fuck do you go" kind of games?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would love to see a complete remake of Daggerfall with the same randomly generated dungeons; I’m not sure that the random landscape and dungeon generation would work with the way games are programmed now though.

  Come to think of it, re-doing Morrowind, Arena, Battlespire, and Redquard would be neat, too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨sus⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My opinion is strictly anecdotal; I’m not a professional, I can only speak to what I’ve personally seen, and that may or may not be representative.

  OTOH, if sex and relationship counselors are saying that the overwhelming majority of people are doing multiamory badly, then their opinions have a lot more weight. Are they necessarily correct? No, of course not, any more than the opinion of any one doctor could be full of shit (see also: any doctor that thinks trans-ideology is a woke-mind virus, or whatever they’re saying now). But it has a lot more weight than opinions of non-professionals.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨sus⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  None of what I said is restricted to any specific form of multiamorous relationship, or any sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. Most of the people trying to engage in polyerotic relationships–by which I mean the overwhelming majority–are people that have signed up for an ultramarathon before they can successfully complete a 5k fun run.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨sus⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  <serious> They mostly don’t. Poly people think they do, but you see far, far more relationship volatility in polyerotic relationships than you do in monogamous.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Instead of Orange Man doing Tariffs would it not have been better for him to talk about shopping locally and so forth. And giving more tax breaks to companies that stay and sell in the US?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Weeelllllll…

  We’re violating trade agreements with our tariffs. But giving tax breaks to companies that re-shore industry would also likely violate trade agreements, because it would create ‘unfair competition’. Kinda like the way that China has given subsidies to certain industries–such as solar panel producers–has created unfair competition, since they have far lower costs than other solar panel producers. As such, tax breaks and incentives would probably also hurt our trade relations, because we would essentially be taking jobs out of other countries. …But that would probably hurt out relations with other countries far, far less than what we’re doing now.

  Honestly, there’s not a great way to bring manufacturing jobs back in a way that doesn’t harm our relationships with other countries, or our national interests in some way. By purchasing shit from companies with lower labor costs/standards of living/higher levels of labor abuse/etc., we’ve undercut our ability to produce the same goods at a competitive price while also keeping our own standards. Even if we went back to pay ratios between workers and executives that existed 50 years ago (I think that lowest to highest ratio in large companies was about 150:1 in the late 60s), that wouldn’t be enough to keep our living standards, avoid labor abuses, and still be competitive with shit we get from China.

  This is compounded by the fact that we do have some of this manufacturing in the US, because it’s more-or-less required by the Barry Amendment (USC 10 §2533(a)). But the costs are astronomical. Take a backpack made by Mystery Ranch. Their Black Jack 80–identical to the USSOCOM SPEAR Patrol bag they make, just with another name–is $1200. The version that’s made in Vietnam and is not Barry-compliant, was about $400. The materials and craftsmanship were substantially identical, but the fabrics were sourced from outside the US, and the manufacturing was done outside the US. There’s no reasonable way that the US gov’t can subsidize those kinds of costs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Instant rotten milk⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So what’s happening here is that the carbonic acid in the carbonated water is curdling the milk. You can get the same effect by adding any acid to milk. If you’re cooking, your recipe calls for buttermilk, and you don’t have any, you can substitute regular milk that you’ve added a tablespoon of vinegar to (stir, wait about five minutes before adding).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unfortunately happens too often I think⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  …Shouldn’t that be the other way around…?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Just ask him what he’s doing when she makes those noises, because you want to try it out on your girlfriend (or have your boyfriend do it to you, either/or, I ain’t gonna judge).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tigers 🐅 🐯⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Related to this - all fabrics used by the military need to be both Berry-amendment compliant, and NIR compliant. What that means is that, first, they need to be made in the USA (because you don’t want to outsource military equipment if you end up going to war with the country that makes shit for you), and second, it needs to not show up like a sore thumb under infrared light, A lot of fabrics and dyes will show up as hot spots under IR, which means that they show up great with night vision. NIR-compliant fabrics will still appear camouflaged under IR.

  That’s why those nylon-cotton blend Crytek combat pants are something like $450, when the Chinese knock-offs made in poly-cotton are about $70.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ain't your buddy, pal!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What up, fucko?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re making a ton of straw-man arguments.

  1. You don’t have to be the best. You do have to be good enough to get scouted by a professional team if your goal is to play professionally. I never at any point said that it wasn’t worth playing if you couldn’t be the best or do it professionally. I spend a lot of time shooting competitively; it’s likely that I will never make Master or Grandmaster in anything, and as a result I’m never going to be sponsored or be able to earn a living at it. (…Not that the money is very good anyways.) So what? I still have fun.

  2. In sports, playing professionally is a meritocracy. Socioeconomic class matters insofar as having more wealth and privilege means that you’ll have access to better training prior to becoming a professional. But the child in question already has access to training, through a parent that plays professionally. But that’s all the farther that socioeconomic class gets you in sports. People from poorer backgrounds often get to go far in sports, if they have the skill.

  3. Yes, OP could be wrong. On the other hand, OP is claiming to be a professional in the field, and is therefore more likely to have an informed opinion.

  4. Success is a combination of directed effort, an inherent capability; it’s not one or the other. If you lack certain inherent capabilities, then all the directed effort in the world won’t get you where you want to be. You can have all the gifts to achieve greatness in a given field, and yet fail completely if you don’t carefully direct your ability in that area.

  5. See above. The kid already has access to top-tier training, and is not making the grade necessary to perform at a professional level. Ergo, the part that is lacking is capability. …Which is why my anecdote is relevant; it’s not my unwillingness to work my ass off that has limited my power lifting aspirations, it’s my physical capabilities. (And yes, I really did work at power lifting. And will again once my shoulder finished healing, even though I’m never going to be competitive at any level.)

  6. Of course the kid isn’t going to be at the same level forever. But he’s not on track to be at a level where he’s capable of playing professionally. A 16yo that’s capable of going pro–esp. when they have access to high-level training–would be expected to be performing at a certain level. According to OP, he isn’t. The probability is that, while he will continue to improve (up until age catches up with him), he is not going to be at a professional level in time to make a career of it.

  7. You’re drawing a false dichotomy between being honest/realistic with your children, and having a relationship with them. I’m gathering, from what you’re saying, that you don’t believe that the parent should give their child a realistic assessment of their performance, and should simply be encouraging; it that correct? It seem like you believe that putting all of your effort into a goal, and failing to achieve that goal would not cause deep bitterness on its own; am I reading that correctly?

  8. “It’s my opinion that it’s better for parents to encourage their children in their dreams […]” I partially disagree. I think that parents need to encourage children to set realistic goals in life, and goals that can be stretch goals. Maybe that looks like going to school to become a biologist, and going on to medical school if biology ends up being fairly easy for them. Maybe that looks like going into a trade if they’re good at working with their hands. Playing professional sports–or being a touring musician that makes enough to live on, etc.–is like winning a jackpot in the lottery. Sure, you gotta play in order to win, but for every person that wins there’s millions of people that don’t. I would hope that you would say that anyone planning for retirement by buying lottery tickets was a fool, even if that person was your child. But even so, you can play sport for fun.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  if he’s not great at football even though he’s living with a pro, that shows me how little you value him.

  Some people simple don’t have the ability to be good at some things, no matter how hard they work at it, no matter who mentors them. Very, very few people have the ability to be a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart regardless of what kind of mentorship they have.

  Let me give you a concrete example.

  I’ve had a major shoulder surgery after tearing the shit out of my supraspinatus and the labrum. The supraspinatus passes through the acromium process on the scapula. The acromium process has roughly three different shapes, which are largely determined by genetics. A type I acromium process is smooth, and allows the spuraspinatus to pass through easily. Type II and type III acromium processes have pronounced ‘hook’ shapes–type III significantly more so–that make injury to the supraspinatus much more probable. I have a type II acromium process. Had Mary Lou Retton been my mother and coach, and I’d tried to be a gymnast, I would have destroyed both of my shoulders long before I was ever going to be going to nation-level events; the limits of the shape of my scapula would have made success impossible, given that a strong and stable shoulder is required in gymnastics, regardless of sex/gender. I would likewise be unable to be a competitive powerlifter, for much the same reason; working up to a nationally competitive snatch would have also destroyed my shoulders. (And, in point of fact, it was working on push-presses that killed it.)

  People are not a tabula rasa, only needing the proper encouragement to become paragons in a given field.