nitpicking

nitpicking, 5 months ago to random

In case anyone thinks "alternative" medicine is harmless: this guy, a real doctor, killed his wife by insisting she use lethal doses of selenium, in addition to "herbal supplements", while inexplicably (to me) denying her actual diagnosis.

https://www.audacy.com/wcbs880/news/local/doctor-gets-prison-sentence-for-overdosing-his-sick-wife

#pseudoscience #pseudomedicine @gorskon @RationalWiki

nitpicking, 4 months ago to random

Anyone know of a high quality "window" mask to allow lipreading? Last time I spoke at a convention, I used an FFP2 window mask that worked fine, but it doesn't seem to be made any more. I anticipate speaking at #WorldCon in Glasgow in August.
@masknerd ?

#Mask #MaskUp

nitpicking, 11 months ago to random

2/2

@mattblaze has written about people who inexplicably harass him because he dares to post black-and-white photos, which they don't like. They even create sockpuppet accounts to get around his blocking them. What is going on in their heads?

nitpicking, 1 month ago to random

Actual page on the NewEgg web site (the web version of a promotional email). "Bulider"?! In a professional marketing product?
https://promotions.newegg.com/neemail/latest/USA_PromotionDeals-index-landing-033024.html?cm_mmc=EMC-Automation033024-USA-

nitpicking, 11 months ago to fediverse

Is there a Fediverse Q&A ... site? package? service? ... that serves the function of Stack Exchange or Quora? Thanks.

#Fediverse #OpenSource

nitpicking, 10 months ago to comics

Today at GoComics, we have a 50-year-old spacecraft:

https://www.gocomics.com/lio/2023/07/11

Also a 50-year-old book

https://www.gocomics.com/offthemark/2023/07/11

Have these cartoonists forgotten that people actually read the comics before retirement age?

#Comics #Lio #OffTheMark #MarkParisi

nitpicking, 10 months ago to mtg

I'm pretty sure these are actual MTG quotes:

https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2023/07/16

#FringePolitics #MTG

nitpicking, 7 months ago to trans

Rishi Sunak just declared transpeople nonexistent. https://wapo.st/3S3X8Eb (no paywall)

Time for the people of the UK to declare his premiership nonexistent. Labor should be tabling a motion of no confidence tomorrow. Today. Now. Let the Conservatives go on the record as supporting hatred and discrimination, at the very least.
#trans
#UK
#LGBTQ

nitpicking, 9 months ago to Tolkien

Did everyone else already know this? JRR Tolkien's name "Saruman" is "Solomon" as pronounced by certain Asian cultures. Anyone think Tolkien's wizard king might have been inspired (in some ways) by the Biblical king whose legends make him the greatest of sorcerors?

#Tolkien

nitpicking, 9 months ago to Biotechnology

Something people might not have thought of: "organic" products are evil.

See, "organic" food means, "We used more toxic insecticides, plowed under more land, and produced less food." And let me here list all the benefits of eating organic foods: it might make you feel better about your choices.

Note: "GMO-Free" also means "evil" and for the same reasons. It's saying, "I will consume more resources per unit of food for no benefit except the warm fuzzies."

#GMO #CriticalThinking

nitpicking, 5 months ago to random

Weird #translation issues dept.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/9-workers-killed-3-injured-in-blast-at-fire-factory-in-western-india/3084977

"Nine factory workers were killed, including six women, and three others were injured in an explosion at a fire factory ..." A fire factory?

Later, "... he blast occurred on Sunday morning while the boosters ..." Is this maybe a rocket factory that is part of India's successful space program?

The article is in an English-language publication by a Turkish agency, so perhaps not shocking. Any #Hindi or #Turku speakers want to comment?

nitpicking, 10 months ago to ArtificialIntelligence

Talk me out of this: virtual green screen. When you start Zoom, Teams, or Webex, you stand outside the camera's visual field. The app records the scene and then replaces it with your virtual background. It only actually shows anything that is in front of the background (you, your chair, objects you pick up). Obviously you'd build in a bit of motion-compensation, maybe using an algorithm stolen from digital cameras.
#meetings #algorithms

nitpicking, 3 months ago to random

@KevinStandlee

With the Chengdu Hugo team refusing to explain their exclusion of facially-qualified nominees, is there a mechanism by which the Glasgow Business Meeting may inquire formally to the Chengdu Committee? I labor under no illusion that they'll feel obligated to respond, but it puts fandom on the record.

I'm actually tempted to propose a resolution putting an asterisk on the 2023 Hugos, but that would unfairly punish the winners, who are in no way culpable.

#HugoAward @Worldcon

nitpicking, 7 months ago to random

Hmm ... @taiyo reports from China that the venue has a Hugo hall. @KevinStandlee (when you get back), is that something the Mark Protection Committee authorized?

#Worldcon

nitpicking, 6 months ago to random

The @washingtonpost has an article titled, "Our best advice for Thanksgiving travel". It's silly. Flying advice is mostly "extend your vacation by days before and after, so you can fly during less-busy times." This is both obvious and impractical. Can everyone really add 3-4 days to their break because they want to? Kids miss extra school?

It's mostly that obvious: "Be prepared for ... delays"? Seriously?

Not de-paywalling because, frankly, not worth reading.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/thanksgiving-traffic-flights-roads-advice/
#WaPo

nitpicking, 8 months ago to random

I wasn't aware of the weird trans-hate coming from musicians lately. Carlos Santana, Dee Snider, and Alice Cooper are three.

https://www.audacy.com/wcbs880/news/carlos-santana-delivers-long-anti-trans-speech-at-nj-concert

nitpicking, 1 month ago to random

1/2
Rod Serling: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices…to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill…and suspicion can destroy…and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."

nitpicking, 6 months ago to StableDiffusion

It's kind of funny how machine-learning AI works. If you feed Stable Diffusion XL "Pale woman,mirror,reflection" the result has no mirror or reflection. If you prompt it with "woman, mirror, reflection", there she is looking into a mirror. Of course, SDXL doesn't know how mirrors work, so the reflection doesn't match the original closely, but it's recognizably the same woman in the same dress. Interesting, SDXL gets depth-of-field right in this image.

#StableDiffusion #StableDiffusionXL #SDXL

nitpicking, 7 months ago to random

So Elon Musk has apparently decided that if someone disagrees with him on policy, they should go to jail. No, I am not exaggerating.

https://missionlocal.org/2023/09/elon-musk-calls-for-jailing-of-san-francisco-supervisor/

#ElonMusk

nitpicking, 8 months ago to random

1/2

Pretty bad #phishing scam in my email today. The letter claims to be from #Youporn and asserts that my image has been used in porn on their site, and that they won't remove it unless I pay them significant money in Bitcoin to the wallet linked. I happen to be fairly alert to these #scams, but this could fool someone who has sexted with an ex who they now are on bad terms with. I tried to report it to Youporn, but their contact form is thoroughly broken.

nitpicking, 7 months ago to random

So many bad stories get posted, I thought I'd say: I visited a new dentist today. Everyone in the office--dentist, assistant, receptionist, and for that matter, me--was masked with a high-efficiency respirator.

#COVID #MaskUp

nitpicking, 7 months ago to random

The bleach-injecting cult leaders have been sentenced to prison: https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/10/florida-men-sentenced-to-years-in-prison-for-selling-bleach-as-miracle-cure/

I would have called it impossible. Health cultists almost never get criminal penalties. Homeopaths and acupuncturists are still free. I guess the difference is that they only occasionally (unintentionally) harm people, where injecting bleach is just too obviously and literally poisoning your patients.

Good news, though: these people are now convicted criminals.

#pseudoscience #pseudomedicine

nitpicking, 6 months ago to journalism

1/2

AP: innumerate about statistics.

"Records reviewed by the AP in 2018 showed the Ohio State Highway Patrol used drug dogs in 28% of its stops involving Black motorists from 2013 through 2017, although the Black population accounts for only about 11.5% of people old enough to have a driver’s permit or license in the state."

https://www.audacy.com/wcbs880/news/national/a-police-dog-attacked-a-black-trucker-on-his-knees-an-ohio-city-is-dealing-with-the-aftermath

#AssociatedPress #AP #Innumeracy #Journalism

nitpicking, 8 months ago to mastodon

Is there any way I can block all messages with more than four hashtags that I do not subscribe to? I'm looking at a message now with [counts] 58 hashtags, one of which I care about.

And one sentence of text, and a photo.

#Mastodon

nitpicking, 4 months ago to ai

Does this look like an LLM-written SOE-targeting "search bait" article to anyone else?
https://vectorlinux.com/stable-diffusion-with-amd-gpu/

#AI #LLM #Search