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twirlip

172 karma · joined September 20, 2014

Hexapodia is the key insight.
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twirlip··on It's a shame what's happened to radio
What if there was a radio station that didn't have commercials or corporate sponsorship?

What if there was a radio station that was entirely listener supported?

What if there was a radio station that let its volunteer DJs play whatever they wanted to play, and say whatever they wanted to say? Within FCC laws, of course.

WFMU is the answer. 1 terrestrial broadcast, 3 internet livestreams, 20 years of archives online and available for listening.

twirlip··on 'There Is No Going Back': The Inside Story of Europe's Rupture with America
So Putin's failure in Ukraine is balanced by his wild success in the US. The eye-watering corruption of Trump and the Republican Party has irreversibly damaged relations with the democratic allies of the US.
twirlip··on LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown
Back in the long-ago times, I saw ordinary people fight tooth-and-nail to keep their WordPerfect on DOS instead of switching to Windows and Word, despite it requiring those overlays kept above their keyboard function keys and being non-WYSIWYG. Ordinary people aren't neophiles, nor is Word especially intuitive. They simply want what that app to which they are familiar.
twirlip··on Thousands of U.S. farmers have Parkinson's. They blame a deadly pesticide
If you actually read the article, it indicated epidemiological studies showing that people living or working near farmland where paraquat is used have a higher incidence of Parkinson's.

Additionally, the article cites a leading neuroscientist in Parkinson's research who says that pesticides are one of the "biggest threats" linked to Parkinson's

Lastly, I personally discount your sort of arguments because it is the same kind we've witnessed the tobacco industry, the sugar industry, and the gasoline industry use regarding the science showing harmful effects of their products.

twirlip··on Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros
1938 Superman didn't fly; he jumped. And he was named Kal-L. But he was also a lot more of a social justice warrior. His chest emblem was different, too. But yeah, I expect good things.
twirlip··on My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before
The page is more for lesser known authors, while the late Iain M Banks is certainly a master of science fiction, he is one of the best known authors.
twirlip··on The right wing is coming for Wikipedia
There's a reason why Conservapedia sucks and isn't used by anybody.
twirlip··on SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight
R&D and prototyping is an up-front expense. Amortization over many units spreads out the costs to long term profitability. Does SpaceX have that kind of time, though? A prospective global depression would dry up the capital for funding Starship development.
twirlip··on Is Porn Misleading Men?
... From a pool of respondents who follow this internet personality. She acknowledges that only 10% of her followers identify as women and may respond differently than their cohorts.
twirlip··on Wild animals are spiraling to extinction. Can a bunch of bureaucrats save them?
It's the "ingenuity of Humanity" that's causing the collapse, is it not? Our intelligence, or ingenuity, has outpaced our wisdom. Surely the advent of thermonuclear weapons, biological weapons, poisoning ourselves and our ecosystem, is a hint that our little branch of the evolutionary tree is beset with peril of our clever little hands and brains.
twirlip··on With 'Megalopolis,' the Flop Era Returns to Cinemas
>> "... artists lose their ability to make art when their brain is infected by money and power."

I disagree. It's largely age based. Especially for filmmakers as novelty is part of the appeal of movies. As the artist ages, I think Yeats said it best: "What can I but enumerate old themes".

Coppola is 85. How many octogenarians are still creatively significant? Yes, they can still put out an album or a film or a book, but their best days are behind them.

Coppola paid for "Megalopolis" out of his own pocket. He wrote and directed the story and cast the actors that he wanted. What is art in its purist form but the self-expression on an individual?

Previously, Coppola mortgaged his home and went legendarily overtime and overbudget for "Apocalypse Now". That's regarded as a classic and was lauded in its time. "Megalopolis", not so much, though time could add a new perspective, as sometimes art becomes more favorably viewed upon reflection.

twirlip··on Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time
Your analogy with carmaker companies doesn't communicate the illogic you believe it does as there are several instances where car companies produced inferior followups to successful models. Furthermore, the self-same manufacturers largely did improve their vehicles to high levels of reliability and performance.
twirlip··on As the public begins to believe Google isn’t as useful, what happens to SEO?
Oh, you!
twirlip··on AI art is folk art, and a revolt against the arts establishment
Remove any copyright protection for AI derived content and I have little problem with AI generated media.
twirlip··on Who’s Afraid of Lorne Michaels?
I think of Lorne Michaels holds a similar place in culture as did Hugh Hefner. SNL was highly influential, but has been coasting on eroding cultural relevance since the internet became more interesting than broadcast television. Comics are discovering they don't need an impresario or producer as they did in the more rarefied entertainment environment of the past.
twirlip··on A conversation with a newspaper owner raided by cops
There are metrics that describe such standards. One such is the University of Würzburg's Democracy Matrix, another is the Corruption Perception Index.
twirlip··on Hollywood’s Cold War Dissidents in Ireland
You are right. Those not killed within a week's time were sent to to concentration camps. Many were forced labor (slave) and then moved to death camps.when they could no longer work. My apologies for being unclear.
twirlip··on A conversation with a newspaper owner raided by cops
In the age of ubiquitous information sharing, the news of cops raiding a newspaper office is rather not a signal the system is working, than it is a klaxon that the system is failing.
twirlip··on Hollywood’s Cold War Dissidents in Ireland
The German industrialists of the early 20th Century feared unionism, socialism, and communism. They backed Hitler and funded the Nazi party. In turn, Nazis enacted the Nacht und Nebel slave labor program, Lex Krupp, and allowed companies such as Krupp to take property from conquered nations.
twirlip··on Transcript of taped conversations among German nuclear physicists (1945)
I wonder if the horrific aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan prevented later usage of nuclear weapons.
twirlip··on HuggingFace Text Generation License No Longer Open-Source
Rather, it is the dilution of the meaning of open source because true and pure open source such as GPL or Apache is too powerful for some people to accept.
twirlip··on A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride
At least she acknowledged her bias in knowing about "the negatives". Imagine the unacknowledged biases of those who refuse to see "the negatives".
twirlip··on The Rediscovery of Susan Taubes
>... we’re meant to be lead [sic].

I always mistrust litcrit with obvious grammatical errors.

twirlip··on Arizona limits building as groundwater dries up
I daresay China and the other nations would disagree with your assessment as to where the axe should fall. Your list--and I believe all such lists--has a strong subjective bias. I have no doubt there is a user on Tencent and a user on VK who have the US and Western Europe as candidates.

I do suspect AI can provide a future Alexander with a tool to solve such a Gordian knot. ML controlling chaotic systems such as double or triple pendulums demonstrates how intrinsically unstable systems can be managed. Imagine the power and ability of 8 billion coordinated people.

twirlip··on Comb jellies proven to be the sibling group to all other animals
Ah, but eusociality means that the genes you have are in kin that inherit the world you leave them. So, by all means, leave them a better world!
twirlip··on Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British accents?
Or Stephen Fry.
twirlip··on SpaceX's First Starship Launch Tomorrow
Until other cheap lifters show up, SpaceX can dictate the floor on costs. But profit means there must be a demand for Starship, perhaps more than Starlink provides. There are businesses that may flourish in near space given cheap enough access to low orbit.

As for launch providers surviving, nation-states have a vested interest in subsidizing their space programs, even at a loss, until they can bootstrap their own cheap lifters.

twirlip··on The military loved Discord for Gen Z recruiting. Then the leaks began
>If you can't ever have your thing in the open maybe you shouldn't be having it at all?

This variant of "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide" shares the same naïve worldview of those who do not understand there are pragmatic reasons for privacy both for individuals and nation-states. One would do well to reflect on the old chestnut that knowledge is power and consider who or what should have that power over, say, one's country.

As for narratives for the young, the obvious education is to have a clear and immediate consequence for a specific action. It's what they call "fucked around and found out" nowadays.

twirlip··on Movies every physics lover should watch (2020)
While true, Gravity was an incredible spectacle when viewed in IMAX 3D. I would argue seeing it in a normal theatre or at home would be such a lesser experience, it would be as if you were watching a different movie.

The IMAX 3D movie conveyed the black emptiness of space, the splendor of Earth from orbit, the velocity of moving objects, and the inertia of a human body in a way that dazzled the viewer. It was astonishing.

True, the physics was wrong. By not as wrong as other films.

twirlip··on LG is getting out of the mobile phone business
What current phone out there has a high-impedance 3.5mm headphone jack, user-replaceable battery, and IR blaster? Asking as a V20 owner.
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