Yeah, I really do wonder when the government and rest of the people start to seriously consider if it is worth it dropping $50 billion on places like SoCal and South Florida every few years or so. At some point you need to do the math and ask hard questions about whether it is worth it, and the answer damn well may be no.

That’s ol’ Slippin Jimmy for you, ever hear about that time in Chicago with the sunroof? Good stuff

I agree and accept your judgment. I’m not optimistic about the future of this country; at this point my only hope is that we don’t take the rest of the world down with us.

Serious answer: an astonishing, alarming chunk of the american population believes the reason why there are social problems, things like school shootings et al, is because there isn’t enough religion. They truly believe that MORE religion is the answer. It’s disgusting and intellectually offensive, and I’ll fight to the death against anyone trying to force me to adhere to their superstitious dogma (praise be, under his eye). So you should be aware that’s the ideology.

People often make the argument that churches do a lot of community service and charity work. Why, then, do you need to include the fairy tale nonsense of mystical deities? We can totally have organized groups of volunteers that do nice things for people, WITHOUT the mythological element involved.

All I took away from this is that there are lots of different variations of the stupid shit that stupid humans believe.

ChatGPT is basically like a really good intern, and I use it heavily that way. I run literally every email through it and say “respond to so and so, say xyz” and then maybe a little refining, copy paste, done.

The other day, my boss sent me an excel file with a shitload of data in it that he wanted me to analyze some such way. I just copy pasted it into gpt and asked it, and it spit out the correct response. Then my boss asked me to do something else that required a bit of excel finagling that I didn’t really know how to do, so i asked gpt, and it told me the formula, which worked immediately first try.

So basically it helps me accomplish tasks in seconds that previously would’ve taken hours. If anything, I think markets are currently undervalued, because remarkably, fucking NONE of my colleagues or friends are using it at all yet. Once there’s widespread adoption, which will pretty much have to happen if anyone wants to stay competitive once it gains more traction, look out…

I’m sure he was a swell guy, a lot of fun at barbecues, dog lover and good with kids yada yada. Plenty of awful folks in history are like that. I hear Hitler was a fun guy who liked dogs and kids too.

…well not ALL kids but still

Michael Collins has him beat though because he got to do it alone in blissful silence, with nobody around to ask him if he’s working hard or hardly working.

Yeah but you can’t use big words like pernicious with them, remember they can’t read and many have lead poisoning so stick to Dr Seuss level language or lower.

I did a few game theory simulations in college and they were always real interesting. In one of them for example, it was a multiplayer game, with multiple interactions. I think it was to simulate global trade basically: you could cooperate with as many players as you want and each time you cooperate you both get a point. If you defect then you get two and they get none. However, all the players could see what the other players are doing, so if you defected they would know and probably would play (trade) with you. The best way to win was to form as many connections as possible and fully cooperate the whole time.

I formed maybe like 20-30 connections with other players and didn’t defect. Each point was worth a few cents or something. So I walked out with a check for like $20-$50 or something. Many players walked out with nothing because they cheated too many people too many times and nobody wanted to trade with them.

Therefore, clearly, the best economic policy is protectionism, tariffs, trade wars, and fucking over both allies and enemies, right? Right?!?

By far the smartest show ever written and it’s not even close!

Gaming is going to be at the bottom of the list, there, saved you a few minutes of googling.

On the plus side, now I know how I’ll react to the news of an impending asteroid/meteor strike.

Dibs on this guy for the post fascist apocalypse team https://www.reddit.com/r/fightporn/comments/181lu0h/this_gay_dude_what_not_having_it/?rdt=39158

You and me both. It’s been a joke for decades but I ain’t laughing. I think we are the first wave. Either we are overreacting and go back whenever if we want, or…well, I don’t want to think about the “or” scenario…

My grandparents were holocaust survivors and what you just said is all I’ve been thinking about the last couple weeks, few months really. I keep imagining I went back in time to Berlin 1932 and have a chat with the family. They’re gone now but I’m 100% convinced they would tell me to fucking run. I’ve got the opportunity and means right now the get the fuck out while the getting is good. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now anyway. People migrate all the time with nothing but the shirt on their backs, and I can do significantly better. Worst case, I come back in a few years with some more international experience. Best case…well…best case is still a pretty bad scenario, because it means I made the right decision, which means…bad stuff…

We are past this though. I remember screaming this into the air at the radio listening to Jack Speer on NPR in 2016. He was going on and on about the awful things Trump was saying and how we shouldn’t be hearing this. I screamed then why the fuck do you keep repeating it Jack, why?!? I blame the media 100% for his election in 2016, all that free publicity. 2024 though…I really don’t have any answers…

First in education, clearly that means education makes you lib’ral, and gay! And trans!

Could you share more about your trans siblings? I had understood that being transgender was relatively uncommon, and I realize there may be genetic or other factors involved. It’s new to me that multiple members of a family might identify this way, and I’d love to learn more if you’re open to sharing. Thanks!