@futurebird@sauropods.win
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futurebird

@futurebird@sauropods.win

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.

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futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This thread is a microcosm of everything annoying about reddit.

Guy posts photo of a spider wondering if it is a "brown recluse" gets a bunch of different answers many repeats, several people calling him stupid for not 'just googling it' a few calls to burn down the house and move.

It's not a brown recluse. Even if it were they aren't aggressive. With a recluse it's fine to move them to a remote location with care.

This spider I would simply escort out the back door.

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatbugisthis/comments/13x2zgh/wife_thinks_all_spiders_are_brown_recluses_but_i/

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@zleap @MichaelTBacon

There was a short time when there were some good discussion on teaching methods there... though this isn't true anymore.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I think it's nice that people go to expert forums to find out about insects. It would be nice if everyone would read the other replies before adding their own.

It would be nice if taking time to tell someone to "google it" would just die... particularly with how google and other searches have... become much less useful over time.

Oh-- and if I never hear "burn down your house" over an insect for the rest of my life... well that would be a dream.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@Fidoly @MichaelTBacon

I really want a brownsnake... not the aussie kind which are dangerous, but the little ones that used to live in NYC -- I have this whole plan to make a "temperate forest terrarium" with local ants and a brown snake and other little ones.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@MichaelTBacon @zleap

Am I crazy to think that "providing answers to Quora questions" is a BAD use of a GPT engine? They aren't designed to find correct information they are designed to produce content that looks like correct information. Am I missing something here?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@MichaelTBacon @zleap

Quora now gives GPT content gumbo answers to questions, and it's blended in with the real human answers. I hate it so much. (labeled, thankfully but what do you think people will make of such labels??)

Not that Quora was ever useful even before this started.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@MichaelTBacon

If I ever found a widow I'd be so excited to have a new pet... but there is something deeply wrong with me, probably.

(they do make really good pets, if like me you have no desire to have a pet spider that crawls on your hands... I don't really get that personally...)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@MichaelTBacon

Very small crickets, really you can start with fruit flies. The care for a widow is very similar to other orb weavers and you only need to feed them once a week. Do not overfeed your female or she'll make an egg sac and give you an ethical dilemma. (I gave the egg sac from the orb weaver I had to my mom for mother's day. She put it in the garden. I would need to go on a damn field trip to relocate a black widow egg sac like to the deep woods upstate.)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Sometimes I've heard people say "oh that's just the kind of answer I was looking for!"

This could be innocent enough-- but I always think "but what if the most correct answer wasn't what you were looking for?" In particular what if the most correct answer is "No one really knows there isn't enough information." or "In fact, the thing you thought was true probably isn't"

I feel like we are hurtling towards a world where such answers will be unheard of things of the past. That scares me.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@owen

I don't know what it is but there are some online spaces that attract users whose primary mode of engagement is basically saying what's wrong with, or what they don't like about every post they see.

They will even find errors where they don't exist.

That's not to say that repetitive questions, and lazy posts don't exist-- but, it's just tiresome. The guy in that thread posted a nice clear photo, and explained what was going on. Either help the dude out or be silent.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@MichaelTBacon

Agree. If I ever spotted one I'd be paranoid about checking my shoes and shirts etc. --that's how people get bit. They crush the spider in clothing.

But also every brown spider gets called "a brown recluse" it's kind of annoying.

futurebird, (edited )
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@DrSuzanne

I thought the point of a "what is this bug" forum was that people who like bugs get to see photos of them (ideally with location information) and in exchange people who don't know about bugs get information that's ... well... probably right more often than not about the insect they found...

But anyway if I see a lazy question in a forum ... uh... I don't answer it?? Uh?

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

After years of dithering I decided to get a freewrite traveler— and I’m thrilled with it! They take the distraction free thing seriously and have managed to balance the need for a full-sized keyboard with keeping the device light/small enough to fit in my bag with my laptop &other junk. (my main hesitation was that I hate having both my laptop and ipad pro in my bag at the same time — it’s too damn heavy!) but the freewrite is small enough I could pair it with either.

Go on call me a hipster.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It’s an expensive and very niche device but I hope the concept of such appliances remains a thing into the future.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Sometimes I like to play drawception.com it’s a telephone style drawing game and very relaxing. So it was disappointing to discover that from time to time people show up and draw racist/homophobic stuff (in a cute little drawing game for crying out loud) Happily the moderators on the site are good and act quickly and reasonably (and seem experienced with this nonsense)

Any space with room for free expression and creativity seems to attract these elements. Like they are on a relentless mission.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This is the non-obvious thing to some about how bigotry operates: it’s everywhere. Even relaxing playing a game I have to wonder— why is this here? Will the other people take it seriously? Will I be able to stay?

There are so many places we have to quietly leave because such things aren’t taken seriously. And I can see how that might seem petty— but I learned the hard way spaces that can’t get the basics right aren’t worth it.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Despite my better efforts I overheard some conservatives on a show talking about… how “Gaia Theory and environmentalism” are “suppressing ambition” and somehow this destroys manliness and leads to the end of Civilization. And I just—

I really wish people would make an effort to understand concepts they don’t agree with with even a tiny bit of good faith.

What could be more ambitious (or manly) than taking responsibility for the climate? I don’t even know if we have what it takes tbh.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@Alon I know right? who the heck is even talking about that now— it’s even a kind of unhelpful view in some ways since it implies more structure and stability than probably really exist. But we are still on the whole caring about having a survival-able climate makes you a “long hair” dirty hippy thing I guess.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

An ability to understand and master ecologies is one of the most ambitious human projects out there. If we call it “terraforming earth” would that help make it seem more impressive?

No what seems passive to me would be to just accept that we can’t have any impact and ignore the consequences of our actions as things get worse.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@debonairetoast Well we can make masculinities whatever we want. When I think of manly men I think of someone who isn’t a leaf in the wind at the mercy of a climate they were to impatient to understand or preserve. But I see masculinity in a positive light mostly it’s one of many styles of leadership and cooperation.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The US Military budget is literally the "I am not good with economy"/"spend less on candles" meme.

No changes needed.

futurebird,
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@madoc @earthworm @donmelton uh the point is that it’s never seriously considered for cuts — it’s never even on the damn table

futurebird,
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This idea that by knowing tricks and paying interlopers you get to pay less tax is absurd. Most people should answer some simple demographic questions in a little app.

Ever since Trump changed the tax code i’ve had to pay more but think it’s mostly because they screwed up the automatic deductions. That and they eliminated a thing that made federal taxes a little lower if you live in a place with high local taxes eg NYC

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The one thing I might have enjoyed about a republican: a few bills to rub together from lower taxes? we didn’t even get that. The most nothing to offer party in the history of everything. I’m serious: can anyone name even a feeble badly advised upside to any of this?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I suspect you are probably right about this system being better, but some part of me wants to live in a country where, for those who are doing well, fed and housed and educated… knowing you contribute wouldn’t be a source of umbrage. Moreover taxes should weigh most on those with the most to spare in such a way that they aren’t a great concern.

I do think that the whole tax preparation industry could stand to be reduced. And the need for “filing” mostly eliminated.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Listen my other reply was rather flip. But I didn’t expect to be plunged into a debate about the necessity of violence and the existence of states. I thought we were talking about budget allocations. You will get no argument from me about the violent nature of states. The violence that (may) find a tax cheat being the most blunt edge of an otherwise sharp sword.

No, the question is simply why isn’t spending less on one of the great engines of state violence ever a part of these discussions?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@madoc @earthworm @donmelton we live in a society my man

futurebird,
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@dalias @earthworm @madoc @donmelton

If falls apart if you think about it for more than 5 min— but a lot of people don’t. SS is a big program for literally everyone— it has its own taxes and its own budget and funding pool— never shall it mix with the rest of the money the government collects and spends.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@earthworm @madoc @donmelton SS is nearly self funded (and would be if we raised the cap)

So counting it in the budget is bizarre.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I bought a new rubber stamp, and I can’t get over how cute it is! I insist everyone look at this cute little ant stamp. 🤗😍

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I’m always looking for cute (but realistic) ant things and I love any art that manages to keep the ant’s mandibles in place — and not putting the antennae on the top of the head, but rather in the “nose region” I should write a guide on “drawing insects for kids without totally mangling their insect-ness”

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