DreamyDolphin

joined 1 year ago
[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually, one bizarre research finding is that, "among diabetics, eating half a cup of ice cream a day is associated with a lower risk of heart problems".

No one's quite sure why or how or whether it's some sort of odd correlation (but it does seem to resist all attempts to p-hack it out of significance), and there's not much appetite among researchers to look too closely into it because everyone knows that ice cream is bad for you.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

The Marseillaise scene is an excellent choice - a lot of the actors in that scene were actual refugees from the Nazis, so their emotions were genuine and powerful.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

The bank heist opening of The Dark Knight is perfectly structured and paced.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Marked it as NSFW just to be safe; made with aZovyaPhotoreal v2

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And apparently it is adult-themed and explores millennial angst and disenchantment, because reasons. Yes, really.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Helpful tip: if, hypothetically, you come across a prolific poster who seems to only thrive on bitter negativity, you can go to their profile and click the "block" option next to the "follow" one near the top of the page and they'll never turn up in your browsing again. Good for peace of mind.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My obscure nostalgia moment from the N64 was the game Blast Corps, where you had to destroy buildings with a range of vehicles to clear a path for a nuclear missile on a truck. Getting the side-swiper to skid just right was so satisfying.

And of course Banjo-Kazooie, as much for the immersive soundtrack as the colourful worlds.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The problem is one of those evolutionary arms races, for a reason in your observation: if the points are useful in seeing the popularity of a given post or comment, then why not simply create a bunch of fake accounts to boost said post/comment (which is exactly what the OP was complaining about in the first place).

Individual karma ratings allow a weighting for upvotes so that, in theory, contributors who have a track record of constructive interaction can be the ones who have more influence on what rises to algorithmic prominence. But, of course, everything can be gamed, hence upvoting bot/sock puppet-rings like the one OP observed, or people buying accounts on reddit that had pre-established karma to let them astroturf away with impunity.

No idea what the long-term solution is, beyond the vague "build a community of known faces/names" which runs the opposite risk of turning cliquish or closed-off to new content. Or maybe abolishing all algorithms and just sorting everything by new (which brings us back to the ancient commenting issue of a whole chain of people saying "first!" rather than adding any meaningful observations).

 

Nikola Tesla speculated electricity from thin air was possible – now the question is whether it will be possible to harness it on the scale needed to power our homes.

Probably a long way off, as the article admits, but an interesting possibility for the future.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I remember that one, Gato's Song was such a strong theme for a literally one-scene character, their riffing on him and his original dialog was brilliant.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like there's a bit of cart-before-the-horse thinking here; as you acknowledge, a lot of it is organic. What makes a social site like this is the people, and specifically, the dynamic/active people who become the hubs of content or who are known characters - for instance, shittymorph (with their incredible talent for weaving fabrications before the inevitable twist) or poem_for_your_sprog who had a natural flair for both poetry and snark. Without individuals with personality, a place just becomes a noticeboard for the posting of memes or information, driven by algorithmic calculation rather than human spark. The downside is that one can never really create such a place from the ground up (hence the collapse of GooglePlus). It emerges over time from the cascading actions and interactions of diverse individuals who come and go over time.

We can certainly set standards and rules and metrics, but to actually ensure community survives and flourishes is an unknowable alchemy. Anyone can say "this will be our official meme format", but whether it takes off or is replaced by one throwaway line from a random person can only be known after the fact. All we can really do is post and interact and try to be the people who would live in a constructive community.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd say the more incredible part is how Twitter is still going, and how people are still actively there, in spite of the rolling dumpster fire that's been happening for literally months now.

[–] DreamyDolphin@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Oops, good catch - "link rot" was the term I was thinking of, should have wiki'd it before so confidently posting.

 
 
 

Research has found those who use medications such as Ritalin without having conditions such as ADHD actually reduce their mental performance on cognitive tasks.

The interesting point was that the meds did sometimes did have an effect, but often it was more about focusing energy in the wrong direction.

view more: next ›