Gloomy

Gloomy, 5 days ago

To be fair, many Youtuber and Tiktokers that are watched alternatively by younger people aren’t intellectual powerhouses presenting super complex content. Not that it’s not there, I have a couple of more informative-ish chanels I like to watch, but there is nothing intellectual challenging watching a video about the speedrun history of kings quest IV.

Gloomy, 5 days ago

After reading the comment again: yeah, you are right, I missed the point.

Unless of course you are suggesting that the generation viewing TikTok and YT are as vapid and shallow as the content they prefer?

No, not what I was suggesting at all.

Gloomy, 7 days ago

I quite liked Astrums cover of Voy 1 and 2.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbl_4TnPIGM&t=1059

Gloomy, 8 days ago

The problem is regulations that are different in the UK compared to those in the EU. It makes it complicated to import food.

Gloomy, 8 days ago

Rip TB

Gloomy, 9 days ago

Predictions that the nuclear exit would leave Germany forced to use more coal and facing rising prices and supply problems, meanwhile, have not transpired. In March 2023—the month before the phaseout—the distribution of German electricity generation was 53 percent renewable, 25 percent coal, 17 percent gas, and 5 percent nuclear. In March 2024, it was 60 percent renewable, 24 percent coal, and 16 percent gas.

Overall, the past year has seen record renewable power production nationwide, a 60-year low in coal use, sizeable emissions cuts, and decreasing energy prices.

This is my biggest take away from this article.

Gloomy, 8 days ago

Possible, but it isn’t and it hasn’t been since the 1970is. Given that reality I think it has been going into a sensible direction, because coal has been steadily falling since early 2000. The push for renewables has been a very direct result of the anti-nuclear movement, without it there might not have been any wish to transition towards them.

Gloomy, 10 days ago

Well, considering the number of killings David did he is not wrong.

Gloomy, 12 days ago

It plays in NYC.

One of my favourite movies of all time.

Gloomy, 16 days ago (edited 16 days ago)

Porn addiction is also not a thing. Outside of religious and moral crusaders, you won’t hear the phrase. Psychologists that specialize in human sexuality do not refer to porn addiction. When you look at the background of the people talking about porn “addiction” in the US, it always goes back to religion and morality, not clinical research.

I was interested if this holds up and unfortunately it is a thing in the medical world, albeit not a big one. I found this study, which gives a good overview over the topic.

I’ll quote the whole Introduction, because I find it quite interesting and it gives a good overview.

spoilerWith the inclusion of “Gambling Disorder” in the “Substance Use and Addictive Disorders” chapter of the DSM-5 [1], the APA publicly acknowledged the phenomenon of behavioral addiction. Furthermore, “Internet Gaming Disorder” was placed in Section 3—conditions for further study. This represents the ongoing paradigm shift in the field of addictions that relates to addictive behavior, and paves the way for new research in the light of cultural changes caused by the new technologies. There is apparently an existing common neurobiological [2] and environmental [3] ground between the varying addictive disorders, including both substance abuse and addictive behavior; this can manifest as an overlapping of both entities [4]. Phenomenologically, behaviorally addicted individuals frequently exhibit a problematic consumption model: impaired control (e.g., craving, unsuccessful attempts to reduce the behavior), impairment (e.g., narrowing of interests, neglect of other areas of life), and risky use (persisting intake despite awareness of damaging psychological effects). Whether these behaviors also meet physiological criteria relating to addiction (tolerance, withdrawal) is more debatable [4,5,6]. Hypersexual disorder is sometimes considered one of those behavioral addictions. It is used as an umbrella construct that encompasses various problematic behaviors (excessive masturbation, cybersex, pornography use, telephone sex, sexual behavior with consenting adults, strip club visitations, etc.) [7]. Its prevalence rates range from 3% to 6%, though it is difficult to determine since there is not a formal definition of the disorder [8,9]. The lack of robust scientific data makes its research, conceptualization, and assessment difficult, leading to a variety of proposals to explain it, but is usually associated with significant distress, feelings of shame and psychosocial dysfunction [8], as well as other addictive behaviors [10] and it warrants direct examination. Concurrently, the rise of the new technologies has also opened up a pool of problematic addictive behavior, mainly Internet Addiction. This addiction may focus on a specific application on the internet (gaming, shopping, betting, cybersex…) [11] with potential for risk-addictive behavior; in this case, it would act as a channel for concrete manifestations of said behavior [4,12]. This means inevitable escalation, providing new outlets for established addicts as well as tempting people (due to increased privacy, or opportunity) who would not have previously engaged in these behaviors. Online pornography use, also known as Internet pornography use or cybersex, may be one of those Internet-specific behaviors with a risk for addiction. It corresponds to the use of Internet to engage in various gratifying sexual activities [13], among which stands the use of pornography [13,14] which is the most popular activity [15,16,17] with an infinite number of sexual scenarios accessible [13,18,19,20]. Continued use in this fashion sometimes derives in financial, legal, occupational, and relationship trouble [6,21] or personal problems, with diverse negative consequences. Feelings of loss of control and persistent use despite these adverse results constitute “online sexual compulsivity” [22] or Problematic Online Pornography Use (POPU). This problematic consumption model benefits from the “Triple A” factors [23]. Due to this model, pornography-related masturbation may be more frequent nowadays, but this is not necessarily a sign of pathology [21]. We know that a considerable proportion of young male population access Internet for pornography consumption [24,25]; in fact, it is one of their key sources for sexual health [26]. Some have expressed concern about this, addressing the time gap between when porn material is consumed for the first time ever, and an actual first sexual experience; specifically, how the former can have an impact on sexual development [27] like abnormally low sexual desire when consuming online pornography [28] and erectile dysfunction, which has spiked dramatically among young men in the past few years when compared to a couple decades ago [29,30,31,32,33]. We systematically reviewed the existing literature on the subject of POPU to try and summarize the various recent advances made in terms of epidemiology, clinical manifestations, neurobiological evidence that supports this model of problematic use, its diagnostic conceptualization in relation to hypersexual disorder, its proposed assessment instruments and treatment strategies.

Gloomy, 15 days ago

And why do you know they are not?

Gloomy, 16 days ago

Can someone explain all this “everyone is good but straight white men in America” bullshit to me?

I think it’s a rather natural reaction to strait white males beeing in power for all of the modern time and therefor beeing the ones that were made to set the rules and, even more importantly, decide what the discourse looks like. Hence the view on women, minorities, non “White” countries, etc is heavily formed by their views.

Gloomy, 18 days ago

The declaration:

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness

Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged.

First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.

Second, the empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects).

Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks.

Gloomy, 16 days ago

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I am less optimistic, given the way the world is going. It it would be nice.

Gloomy, 16 days ago

Look at it, it’s cuts as hell. (I’ll hide it behind a spoiler tag. A phobia is a phobia, after all)

spoilerhttps://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/9dde354b-044a-40fb-af6a-124924e2cc70.webp

Gloomy, 19 days ago

Only the it’s not companies but entities which include China, the former soviet union and the Russian federation. This is such a fucking missleading title the guardian ran here.

carbonmajors.org/…/The-Carbon-Majors-Database-269…

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/05dfb9e1-ace2-4072-9fc5-7ed6f6eddfb2.png

Gloomy, 20 days ago (edited 12 days ago)

Your comment is a good example of the us vs. them mindset they are talking about in the article.

First author Lukas Reinhardt (Leader of the Global Cohesion Lab at the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion [CSSC], University of Oxford) said, “Us-vs-them thinking is on the rise in many places all over the world, exacerbating conflicts and complicating finding solutions for pressing global problems.”

Gloomy, 19 days ago (edited 11 days ago)

I assume that you are American. And I assume that when you are talking about religion, you are talking a about the Christo-Fashist flavour of Protestantism that is all too common there these days.

And I understand the bitterness. I see and agree on the harm done by said group.

But.

Speaking about humanity, there is a lot of religion going on. Some is clearly bad and does indeed separate their participants from the rest of humankind. Christian Fashism, Islam, Hinu Nationalism. I see that.

Some is just neutral tough. Most of Europe these days has a Christian flavour of some kind that happens more in the background and isn’t in the way of progress, science or a secular moral system.

I am a Buddhist, and it has done nothing but help me become a more logical and a more compassanate person. I don’t see a downside so far. Have there been harmful Buddhist movements? Absolutely. Look at Myanmar and you can see how the Dharma can be used as a tool of hate.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: When religion becomes a tool of othering people, of creating a “us and them” dichotomy, then it is harmful, I agree with you.

But by making such a broad statement as yours, grouping every singe person on the planet that has some theistic belive together, you are too and I don’t think that is a good thing to do. Certainly not when we need unity more than ever, as the article does point out correctly in my opinion.

Gloomy, 19 days ago

But your opinion also seems to lean towards dictating certain things to people, based on your beliefs and opinions.

Could you specify this a bit, please? I honestly don’t see what you mean here.

Gloomy, 19 days ago (edited 11 days ago)

But you state it in a way that suggests if everyone on the planet followed your beliefs, then the world would be at peace and everyone would think logically, and start cooperating to fix all the world’s problems.

I am sorry, but neither have I writen this nor have I implied it. If you read it that way then okay, you can interpret it that way if you wish so. But I am, rest assured, not of the opinion you statet here.

Religion isn’t for everyone. Buddhism isn’t for everyone. Nor is Atheism. I think what view of the world you choose or don’t choose should be up to you and you alone. I don’t support preaching about it, I for sure don’t support trying to convert others to your way of thinking.

I think every person should make up their own mind about those things, while staying open to others arriving at a different conclusion. That is the mindset we would need to arrive at a true level of global cooperation.

Gloomy, 19 days ago

But it is your own biased suggestion based on your beliefs.

I think I am not the one in this conversion who is biased, if you need my view to aline THIS HARD with your idea of religion even if I have explicitly made clear that it is not.

I don’t care what you belive or don’t. But you can’t see past your idea of that believing and religion is.

Gloomy, 19 days ago

I’ll reflect on my noodles a bit then. Maybe it’ll show me the sauce of your confusion.

Gloomy, 26 days ago (edited 18 days ago)

I second this, it seems a bit too much on the nose to be real.

Edit: Omg, it’s real.

Gloomy, 29 days ago

From their website:

The lounge is a tremendously lavish space in our museum in which women can indulge in decadent nibbles, fancy tipples, and other ladylike pleasures—hosted and entertained by the fabulous butler. And as is always the case with Kirsha’s dinners and feasts, you are a participant in what she sees as the art itself, part of a living installation. Any and all ladies are welcome.

Any and all ladies doesn’t sound like they are excluding people that may not have been born female. It sounds, at least to me, that it includes said person group.

Gloomy, 29 days ago

As a GM I would give my players a bonus to stealth during a total eclipse if they wanted to sneak past some guards, so I think this is a very valid take. ;-)