cyd

joined 1 year ago
[–] cyd 49 points 3 months ago (25 children)

People are quick to blame Google for the slow uptake of Jpeg XL, but I don't think that can be the whole story. Lots of other vendors, including non-commercial free software projects, have also been slow to support it. Gimp for example still only supports it via a plugin.

But if it's not just a matter of Google being assholes, what's the actual issue with Jpeg XL uptake? No clue, does anyone know?

[–] cyd -2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Riots caused by court rulings don't usually topple prime ministers. This feels really weird and off.

[–] cyd 3 points 3 months ago (9 children)

That's wild.

Bangladesh has actually been doing pretty well in the past decade, no? I know there have been concerns about Hasina's increasing authoritarianism over the years, but the stuff I've read indicated that she was actually quite popular, within the context of the country's incredibly polarized politics.

Having her toppled by a mob like this... while hoping for the best for Bangladesh, I can't help but feel quite pessimistic for the future of the country. For one thing, there's the distinct possibility that this is a military coup disguised as a popular insurrection. Hope that's not the case.

[–] cyd 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Decent affordable Bandai kits when...

[–] cyd 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Trump has a fawning audience, true, but unfortunately he also is a pretty funny guy who can think on his feet. During the debate, his quip that "I don't know what he just said and I don't think he does either" was 100% perfect. You can really see how his entertainment background sets him apart from other politicians. (All this, of course, is in service of the worst policies, which is too bad.)

[–] cyd 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They also pinky-promise that they are not running current psy-ops on many other topics. (Tee hee.)

[–] cyd 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Trump lost by around 50,000 votes in swing states, in the middle of a bungled pandemic response. In 2020, Biden was polling significantly higher than Trump; today he is polling significantly lower.

All this before that picture of Trump fist-pumping after being shot, which is going to be widely juxtaposed against Biden's inability to walk down 2-3 steps.

I don't know where this idea that Trump has "no chance" comes from.

[–] cyd 47 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (31 children)

Whelp... Biden was insistent on running, now the Monkey's Paw has answered. All the other plausible Dems who could have stepped in to replace Biden will be running for the hills, and being the Democratic nominee is gonna be the worst job in politics for the next four months. And at the end of the campaign he gets to be remembered by history as the loser in the worst landslide election since Reagan-Carter.

Also:

  • Sonia Sotomayor's decision not to retire during Biden's term is looking like yet another D own goal. Very real prospects for a 7-2 Supreme Court.

  • We're going to be seeing an orgy of foreign governments jockeying to cultivate relations with Trump. Official US foreign policy is going to be dead in the water, and NATO and G7 will be leaderless, until next year.

  • Trump is going to have an iron grip on the Republican party now, to an even greater extent than before. On various issues where other Republicans held positions contrary to Trump's, they're going to be brushed aside.

  • For the above two reasons, Ukraine is pretty well fucked.

[–] cyd 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Polls have significant predictive power, especially when you poll reportedly and/or aggregate them. Which is why all political campaigns, R or D, spend literally millions running their own polling. Moreover, it's now July, the first convention is literally coming up within days, so the excuse of being "far out from the election" no longer holds.

[–] cyd 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Okay, this settles it: Biden is gonna be the nominee. Nobody else on the Dem side is gonna want to be the sacrificial lamb going up against Trump after today.

[–] cyd 1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Are you being wilfully pedantic, or do you not know that it's possible to tell someone is ahead in a contest?

 

The Shar-worshipping crazy goth chick is a great character concept. Trouble is, the game seems to throw a lot of great light-related cleric spells and equipment at us, and all the alternatives seem to be bad. From an RP point of view, Shadowheart obviously shouldn't be wielding a light-emitting mace, wearing radiance armor, and shooting Faerie Fire and Guiding Bolt all over the place. But I can't find a lore-friendly playstyle that isn't substantially worse in fights.

Some of the Shar-related equipment, and the Trickery domain subclass perks, seem to point to some sort of melee cleric build exploiting darkness. But the overall effect seems subpar; for starters, clerics can't cast Darkness, so another party member would need to supply that, which is clunky.

Any suggestions?

 

Dias had another Nature paper retracted last year. Nature let him publish this one anyway. Who could possibly have predicted this outcome???

 

Can he? In general, can/do popes vote in their home countries?

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submitted 1 year ago by cyd to c/singapore
5
Notes on Ghana (mattlakeman.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by cyd to c/[email protected]
 

An interesting history of post-independence Ghana, focusing on the many economic mistakes made after the British colonialists left: inefficient state owned enterprises, an artificially strong currency, irresponsible fiscal policy, entrenched interests blocking reform. And finally, a Deng Xiaoping-like economic revival, under an unlikely leftist dictator who changed his mind about how to run an economy.

 

Physicist Ranga Dias and his colleagues have twice claimed to make a room-temperature superconductor. But many researchers question the evidence.

 

Physicist Ranga Dias and his colleagues have twice claimed to make a room-temperature superconductor. But many researchers question the evidence.

 

https://archive.ph/G0aRF

TLDR: It's partly climate change, but also in large part because regulations forbid insurers from raising rates on homes in disaster-prone areas. This creates perverse incentives for people to live where disaster will strike.

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