I knew one that said “Meh” so I assume they all do it.

When he said “Her husband…” and another skink came out, I lost it. I hope they had a wedding. I hope there was a reception. I want to know the guest list.

I just called out “Red Eyed Crocodile Skinks!” to no one. Fucking love these guys. They say “Meh” when you poke 'em.

When I start to feel irked I imagine it’s Colin Robinson on the other side so there’s no reason to engage.

I predicted this. I said if we ever tried to block politics it would devolve into nitpicking what is and isn’t political.

But to answer the question: If your computer shit is about due for a upgrade, don’t wait.

Grocery prices would probably keep going up no matter who got elected, so gardening supplies would be a good investment over time. Along with gardening comes the peripheral skills of cooking and preserving when it’ll hurt your soul to see any of your sweet baby tomatoes go to waste.

Hey.

I’d like to get into how both me and OP are talking about how fast AI, not just LLMs, is scaling, and the potential it has across a variety of industries - most concerning to me is it’s use by investment firms. But I need to go to the barber because I already have enough split hairs.

I do. I did get a little lost in the weeds with my point though, as I was talking in a more general sense about how AI is already powerful and dangerous - because AI safety is a subject in this thread.

That there are AI art generators that use licensed art and/or public domain and open licence images. People so deep in the “AI art is theft” shtick they don’t even wanna hear it.

What we see in AI as an average consumer is like the RC hotwheels to a state of the art tank being used by big corps.

Just imagine that if an early LLM can fool an engineer into thinking it’s sentient, what a state of the art system can do, one designed to predict the market, run propaganda bots on social media or straight up manufacture news stories with the footage to back it up.

The AI being used by big corporations is so advanced, it’s one of the reasons countries have been trying to digitally isolate themselves. It’s really not an if, it’s a when.

I’ve seen these barbeque boats floating around tourist spots. They have a grill in the center, seats all around and a driver steers them while they cook and eat. So you get one of those, “accidentally” spill some lighter fluid all over and have a pack of hot dogs for a cover story. After that, it’s as simple as lighting the grill and riding the flames to valhalla.

Read every page to a different animal in different setting.

“I have trauma that makes sexual gratification difficult.”

“Hah, no it doesn’t work like that. Allow me to sexually harass you.”

I support independent creators of all kinds.

Please don’t die from this advice.

First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live. However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades. If you make cookies you don’t want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it’s only worth buying from the discount bin.

It’s fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.

Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I’m from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.

Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.

Just because something says it’s expired doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.

I’ve worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I’ve worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.

Depression?

I have hope for the average person.

Disagree. My favourite paring knife came from a discount bin at a dollar store in a pack of five. You can find decent knives at a dump if to you look hard enough, depending on your definition of cheap.

Former chef: Knives. My most expensive knife is $80 with a lifetime warrantee. Most are $10-$20. Instead, learn how to use and take care of a knife.

I did a summer contract in forestry, up north, in the mountains, middle of nowhere. We had to get into an area that was beyond a pipeline blockade - meaning a group of indigenous leaders were blocking a pipeline from being built on their land.

The higher ups negotiated with them while we spent days off gaining bad reputations in town.

When we were allowed through, they welcomed us individually and explained their reasons for being cautious. They told us that people dressed as (or actually were) cops tried to convince them they were on public land and force them to leave, they had people pretending to be blockade protesters who came in and tried to burn down their buildings, they had people blow up their signs, they had helicopters drop off equipment and workers beyond the blockade in the night. Taking all this with a heavy pinch of salt, we got through to work.

Not an hour after we started, black goddamn helicopters showed up. About ten of them. They hung out all the first day, there were fewer the second and only one for the next two. And they were low, I could feel the wind from the rotors at times.

I don’t know why. We discussed it over plenty of drinks without coming to any good conclusions. I don’t know if they thought we were with the blockade and wanted to intimidate us, or why the pipeline people didn’t talk to the forestry people to figure out we were just labourers. As it turns out that kind of thing does happen in real life.

A bunch of us took big shits in the open where they could watch.

Vegetables are just fancy nutrients, that’s why I only eat a flavourless calorie paste that contains all my essential vitamins.