rivetgeek

beasts, 9 hours ago to random

Another large language model scraper blocked. This graph is from a site which runs a tool generating answers for people doing important research work. The AI scraper sent hundreds of thousands of lookup requests evading rate limits by using about a thousand IPs and pinned multiple webservers at 100% CPU (graph from one attached). This is a massive waste of electricity to train a hallucination machine.

Alexlee, 10 hours ago to academicchatter

Nobody told me about the snakes! #phdlife #phd @academicchatter

SallyStrange, 59 minutes ago to science

SCIENCE!

"[Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre] discovered that it was possible to build a warp drive through a clever manipulation of spacetime, arranging it so that space in front of a vessel gets scrunched up and the space behind the vessel stretched out. This generates motion without, strictly speaking, movement.

It sounds like a contradiction, but that’s just one of the many wonderful aspects of general relativity. Alcubierre’s warp drive avoids violations of the speed-of-light limit because it never moves through space; instead space itself is manipulated to, in essence, bring the spacecraft’s destination closer to it.

While tantalizing, Alcubierre’s design has a fatal flaw. To provide the necessary distortions of spacetime, the spacecraft must contain some form of exotic matter, typically regarded as matter with negative mass. Negative mass has some conceptual problems that seem to defy our understanding of physics, like the possibility that if you kick a ball that weighs negative 5 kilograms, it will go flying backwards, violating conservation of momentum."

A warp drive breakthrough? Maybe. A breakthrough in our understanding of gravity? Probably!

(Scientists don't understand gravity very well at all.)

#Science #WarpDrive #FTL #StarTrek #science #Physics

https://www.wired.com/story/warp-drive-breakthrough-physics-star-trek/

KeithAmmann, 5 hours ago to tisseksplayspace

Opening today at the American Writers Museum in Chicago! #TTRPG https://exhibits.americanwritersmuseum.org/exhibits/level-up/

llewelly, 7 hours ago to random

google 15 years ago: "We're using machine learning to fight the spam industry"

google today: "We're using machine learning to be the spam industry"

ScienceAlert, 1 day ago to random

Crows Can Actually Count Out Loud, Amazing New Study Shows
https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-can-actually-count-out-loud-amazing-new-study-shows?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Nature @nature

MechaVsKaiju, 1 day ago to Macross

Confessions of a GenX Otaku
#Macross

https://mechavskaiju.com/confessions-of-a-genx-otaku/

kottke, 1 day ago to random

“Black holes might create infinite universes while destroying time and space. Everything in existence could be black holes, all the way down. We might live inside a black hole that is inside a black hole, that is inside a black hole.” https://kottke.org/24/05/infinite-black-hole-universes

scottsantens, 3 days ago to random

Do not confuse welfare with Universal Basic Income. If you get $1k in welfare does it make sense to take a $1k job, lose your welfare and end up with the same $1k? No.

If you get $1k UBI, does it make sense to take a $1k job and end up with $2k? Yes.

This is why so many pilots show increases in work.

SFRuminations, 3 days ago to scifi

Everyone wants to remake the good stuff... what about remakes of the truly awful shows with fantastic potential in their ideas?

My suggestion: a modern version of Ark II (1976) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127989/?ref_=ls_t_19

"Three young scientists travel around the country in the 25th century after the world has been ravaged by pollution. In their hi-tech RV (called Ark II), they study the land and help out those in need."

Is that not a fantastic premise?
#scifi #sciencefiction #TV #show #history

CITIZEN_OCHOA, 3 days ago to random

Sooo... if you need illustration for your TTPRG project, hit me up!

Javier, 4 days ago to random

Saw some text online that made me want to turn it into signage. What good are graphic design skills if you can't have a little fun with them.😜

CITIZEN_OCHOA, 3 days ago to random

#blorp

scottslowe, 3 days ago to random

After using Sops (https://github.com/getsops/sops) with #Pulumi for a little while, I've come to the conclusion that Sops---while a very useful tool---doesn't offer a great deal of additional value to a Pulumi-centric environment.

Sops experts, am I missing something?

PaulBaldowski, 3 days ago to random

There's nothing so disconcerting as seeing people post pictures of their games with the dice scattered all over the table!

Carry them in style. And keep them under control on the tabletop.

Coming as part of the Warpland Euro-reprint Kickstarter soon!

https://bit.ly/warpland

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jamesmullen, 3 days ago to tisseksplayspace

I just finished another months-long campaiign, so time for reflection... #ttrpg

Big takeaway: lots of players are conditioned to expect GMs to be out to get them, because of early experience in games where the GM was out to get them.

I see this in players trying to make characters that are exempt from the premise of a game ("If I don't accept the premise, I can't be hit with it!") or nail down their intent with super precise wording ("If I get it just right, I can't be hit with it!") 🧵

jack, 3 days ago to random

Trump secretly died years ago. What you're seeing now is actually three Ben Shapiros in a baggy suit.

#politicaldirt

futurebird, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.

Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.

The ozone could have a huge hole.

We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.

I feel like we forget this, you know?

miriamrobern, 4 days ago to random

It's Monday Morning... for about thirty more minutes. I'm taking it easy today because it's May Long Weekend here in Canada.

But the rest of the week I'll be doing layout on Xine Two and TorchLite, and writing a little New Girl at Uskweirs.

What about you? What are you making this week?

#MondayMotivation

Miriam talking about her weekly creative intentions.

chgowiz, 4 days ago to google

If you are using Firefox, and you want to "fix Google" as outlined in this article ( https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/ ),

... then go here (link goes to StackExchange): https://superuser.com/a/1756774

For me, I used:
Search Engine Name: Google Web Only
Search URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14
Search Alias: @gw

I can't believe what a difference it makes!

#Google #MakeItBetter

mekkaokereke, 5 days ago to random

There are only ~40 million Black people in the US. Population similar to Lagos state in Nigeria (the tiny red part).

There are ~250 million US white folk (~220 non-Hispanic white + ~30 million Hispanic white).

So Biden's "missing" 10% of Black men, is fewer than 2 million. Or less than 1% of white US population.🤡

White voters don't face the massive systemic voter suppression that Black voters do. So increasing white dem turnout is much easier.

So if your boy doesn't win, blame yourselves.

RJB_Mallacore, 4 days ago to scifi

New starship work in progress.

For a long time I have been a fan of the Corvette design from the game Independence War (I-War) box art. I finally decided to do a ship inspired by that design.

Enjoy.

#3dmodels #starship #scifi #scifiart #lightwave3d

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

peteramthor, 4 days ago to tisseksplayspace

I know it's Facebook but my employer at Aesop's Treasury Books and Games just helped get board games, and some #ttrpg books, to over a dozen local libraries. For free. My boss, Vince, is always trying to find ways to help the community. Later on free RPG day we will be doing our yearly charity raffle for Suicide Prevention. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/CcVjfCLLYhqEtT78/

SymbolicCity, 4 days ago to random

Jay Dragon says: "Ultimately, in D&D, there's a big cage around combat, and a wide-open field around social interactions."
https://possumcreek.medium.com/rules-are-a-cage-and-im-a-puppygirl-69e8d569b2b6 (forgive the Medium link)

Another way to look at that, using their own terms, is that D&D makes a game of combat and pushes social interactions off onto make-believe. Which is fine—that, too, is a design choice—but it's a distinction presented to people who are ostensibly interested in playing a game, interested in playing within a cage.

bethpdx, 6 days ago to random

When I was an editor at the Chicago Tribune, I would’ve been in trouble if I’d let my wife put a political bumper sticker on our car. But a Supreme Court justice’s home can fly a flag of insurrection and he’s still allowed to rule on whether the head insurrectionist has immunity.” https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-17-2024?r=13f3k3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web