this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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Memes

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A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.

Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

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So that's why they're hateful abominations (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by Stamets to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 140 points 10 months ago (3 children)

For the uninitiated:

When English civil Engineer Sir William Cubitt invented the “treadwheel,” he didn’t have fitness on his mind.

His device was used to reform convicts.

Prisoners were forced to climb the spokes of a large paddle wheel known as the “eternal staircase.” The resulting energy was used to pump water or crush grain (hence, the eventual transition from “treadwheel” to “treadmill”).

One prison guard claimed that it was the treadmill’s “monotonous steadiness, and not its severity, which constitutes its terror.”

The use of treadwheels was abolished in Britain by the Prisons Act of 1898. Years later, when aerobic exercise became popular in the 1960’s, the treadmill resurfaced.

[–] paddirn 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

And treadmills now probably consume way more power now than they could actually generate.

[–] sploosh 15 points 10 months ago

Most treadmills run on DC motors with magnets in them, so they could generate all the power you like if you pushed the treadmill and had the right controller.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I'm annoyed that the nice bike trainers don't generate power, or at least have the option to. My Wahoo shouldn't be drawing power from the grid, it should be supplying it!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I used to have a cheap one with no motor at all. It was slightly inclined. You just pushed backwards to get it started and it used your own momentum/gravity to turn.

[–] Donkter 26 points 10 months ago

So the original treadmills required the user to push them and they couldn't leave? That does sound way worse.

[–] Stamets 35 points 10 months ago (3 children)

No, I didn't faceplant on one as a child and have the skin rubbed off and now as an adult absolutely hates the things for no real logical reason, I don't know what you're talking about

[–] Broken_Monitor 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There are perfectly logical reasons outside of face planting to hate them. I get that the weather can be shitty outside sometimes, but I’ll take some scenery over a treadmill any day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

This is it for me. I have friends who train for halfs and marathons on a treadmill, and I struggle to focus beyond a mile and a half or so. It's not the cardio element, it's just the sheer boredom factor.

Getting out and about even in gash weather is infinitely preferable from my perspective. I'd much rather smash in six miles on tarmac than one or two on the treaddy. Plus, you can't rack up Pokémon Go distance on a treadmill.

[–] Dkarma 6 points 10 months ago

You're supposed to move your feet...

[–] Odo 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Harrison, is that you?

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] cashsky 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ellipticals are a better exercise overall anyways.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it's because I'm the wrong size but I can never get a rhythm going on an elliptical. It just feels weird.

But I love a good rowing machine. Makes me feel like a pirate rowing ashore with a chest full of booty. Does wonders for my shoulders, too

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Yeah, never really liked ellipticals, or treadmills for that matter. Could go for quite a bit on a rowing machine, it doesn't feel much different than a scull, other than not moving through water.