JohnnyEnzyme

I always wondered why I loved the wholesome sound of a good ol’ “THUNK.” It just… sounds right, somehow. ("careful with that spear, boy!")

There are couple free versions for Android (and I would guess, Apple too). *Lone Wolf Saga* was adapted from what were originally books, I believe. There's even a sequel series, I think. *Choice Games*, (i.e. the one with Ranger saga, Wizard saga, Thief saga etc) is also great, with some seriously impressive writing. There are a couple others on my phone I could scrounge up if anyone's interested.

One would think, right?

I'm not remotely knowledgeable enough to say with any confidence, but:
https://www.google.com/search?q=why+are+various+types+of+sand+so+irreplaceable%3F

EDIT : well, hate on me if you like, but I think this seems to clarify things.

Sand of various types are running out around the world, and it can be quite the expensive challenge to get the right type for your particular project, many times involving trying to preserve land from water erosion. Maybe industry is working to create artificial sand grades for current and future projects, I'm not sure...

Oh, entschuldigen Sie bitte!

I suppose that's an interesting point in general, Gandalf, but I was speaking to species-wide instances. If you have a more efficient method of framing such things, then please be my guest...

This is an excellent question IMO, and I'm sure you'll receive plenty of excellent (and energetic) responses, but I do want to point out something which chronically gets overlooked, as part of these discussions. Ready?

Homo sapiens is traditionally a tribal, social, and clan-based animal, not unlike our cousin chimpanzees, and others such as wolf & dog packs, elephant herds, parrot flocks, and a couple other examples. Our organisation upon such likely goes back at least 2.4Myrs, when biologists and those in related fields first classified "Homo" as a distinct genus. But arguably, such goes back perhaps as long as our common ancestor of chimps, maybe 7Myrs ago or so. Or earlier!

My point is-- modern humans' natural state is to exist in smallish, commune-like situations, and that is a fact. That's literally in our DNA upon a multitude of levels, and literally spans the entire length of H. sapiens ~300Kyr history.

Meaning? That we're naturally communists of a kind, and my take on "socialism" is that it's roughly an attempt to make our traditional style work, when organised upon regional and national levels.

THAT SAID: I think it's good to also observe how things happen in the wild. For example, my mentors Robert Sapolski and Jane Goodall famously observed our fellow apes & monkeys being total assholes towards each other, amidst hierarchy-type situations. It's a complicated discussion, anyway, and maybe not hard to imagine why so many of our fellow rich, needy, powerful human monkeys are such total, narcissistic assholes towards everyone else.

I used to do a bit of firing at art school. Pretty sure later-tech made glazing as easy-peasy as possible, but IMO it’s pretty dang impressive what the Egyptians did, here: https://chatgpt.com/share/69ee869d-3784-83ea-951a-dab487fc6222 (eh, sorry for the source, but it’s one of the few areas where I feel like LLM’s combine to be useful x generally reliable)

Where the foopin’ are you seeing a “furry?”

I'm still depressed that aphids wiped out my little window plant garden a couple years ago, but this post gives me hope. I wasn't using seeds, but simply getting further growth out of stuff I'd got at the local market, such as radish, scallions and a couple other herbs. I have very little experience with this kind of setup, but it's always a good time to learn. Bookmarking it for future reference. Thank you for this, JayKrown. Hi, @nacktmull@lemmy.world :D

Thanks. I'm just going to drop this one, as I don't have the energy to dig further in to this, and no dogs in this 'fight.'

I tried getting through that mess, but was left even more confused than when I began. TL;DR?

Piefed by default auto-subscribes accounts to a curated set of communities

When I first signed up, I was given a 'checkbox system' to subscribe to /c's of interest. IIRC I also had the option of signing up for none. That said, if PF auto-subscribes to some core communities (like META, help, Fediverse, etc), then I'm not really seeing a problem?

auto-hides downvoted content and downvoted posters

I mean... I see plenty of downvoted content & posters in my subscribed feed. Maybe that's not the case with ALL, tho? TBH, that sounds like SOP in terms of social media.

attaches icons to accounts to mark those that have beyond a particular threshold of downvotes

I like it, as that generally helps identify low-effort & toxic posters. I guess I can see the point though that it might accidentally sweep up others, simply because they're challenging or whatnot. On the whole though, I certainly don't have a problem with that little bit of extra info, which I'm free to do with as I please.

entirely blocks links to a curated set of sites because Rimu deemed them to be unacceptable.

Yeah. Personally I would have liked to have some access to various NSFW content, as I'm not a child, but then again, PF.S is Rimu's home instance, and as the dev and head admin, I absolutely do not have a problem with him doing that. I mean, if I really wanted to work around that, there are plenty of other PF instances as a base...

So at the end of the day, you seem to be calling someone a "bit of a twat" based on policy decisions. Someone who's donated loads of his personal time, effort and brainwaves to a community project for loads of others to enjoy. Can't say that sounds particularly cool to me, mate.

You might also sign up for an instance or two on piefed. The guy who’s mostly responsible for that is also a bit of a twat

If you mean Rimu, I haven't seen any examples of that. Explain?

Holy wowsers, those are incredibly detailed. If you look at the other collections there, that really shows up on the larger stuff, like pottery, shoes, etc.

Not my favorite period season, but IMO arguably the best, quality-wise: “I call my 1st witness– General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmany Melchett!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPk43lZPkTI

XD Do you have a favorite ep, PJ? Looks like they removed a lot of them from YT, but I still found my favorite here: https://archive.org/details/blackadders-christmas-carol-1991-uk-vhs I do love how in every season they impressively rework the opening theme in to whatever the genre of the current series is. Also, bonus pts for Blackie starting out as a perfectly lovely bloke in the beginning of the one above. (and great cameos, too)

Almost seems like something fitting for Blackadder 1 or 2. The first series would have worked in particular, in which he wore that beyond-ridiculous codspiece. I’d say it worked pretty well, given that he was such a sniveling coward in the first series. 😄

Some years back, a little family of squirrels got in to our attic and made it their playground. After the outer hole was patched, I began humanely trapping and releasing them with good ol' peanut butter as the bait. I then had the idea to add some white spray paint to their backs, to make sure they weren't still getting back in. Actually I only tagged one squirrel that way, as it just... well, something felt off about the process, and I only needed one test subject, I thought. A couple weeks later I saw a squirrel running around with a lot of its back-fur missing, and realised that I'd F'd up. Fortunately (I think, I hope) that given it was summer, the little one would have plenty of time to 'fur-up' before winter.

I feel like you can do that all by yourself? Have fun with that, mate. 😆

Sorry for my lack of magical thinking. Guess that's never happened to you, across your life. Oh well.

It’s pretty self-explanatory really

You may think that in your head, but that's exactly why I asked for greater context, mate. That was my point.

Huh! Could you explain the context...?

Dammit, KLOS!
Last time I was so happy you didn't go all "Cowboy Henk with the poo," and so, of course... this, lol.

💩

Oh well. But do you know who Cowboy Henk is, at least?

Okay.

I still get a load of spammy texts directed to the prior user of my #, and pretty clearly they're almost all produced by simple automation. But even with live callers, I believe many companies have automated a lot of that process as well. So as with email spam (etc), it might take surprisingly little effort to produce the call. So it can still be worth it for them, statistically, to harass you.

Devil's advocate-- the Industrial Revolution has led to heaps of the 'prosperity' we moderns have enjoyed, while effectively destroying our future via various forms of pollution, directly because too few heeded caution and considered the importance of sustainability. It became all about money at almost every level, and unchecked capitalism is ultimately a tyrant, as we're now discovering via late-stage capitalism. While the rich get richer and fascism rises around the world, of course.

Sorta-kinda? But the features and philosophy seem pretty notably different. That said, I haven't logged in to Lemmy for ~a year (my instance shut down), but does Lemmy have curated and personal feeds, like PF does..?

Unfortunately, it seems that I can’t add risqué domains to my communities block list via current PF software. Perhaps in future?

Oh man, I would love it if someone sent him this link and he did a little “locks through time” video!

Blocking domains is something I can do at the general user level, but seemingly I can’t do it from the community I run. So in the past, I’ve had to block malicious bots by hand when they bother us. Fortunately that’s happened only… once so far, I want to say. Not sure what you mean by different file format.

Similar issue with Reddit 3yrs ago when Spez went berzerk. The mass of users just couldn’t manage to get off the platform / apathy / etc.

Bas-relief portrait of a woman from the Tomb of Ramose, in the Ancient Egyptian Necropolis of the nobles at Thebes, near Luxor, Egypt Liberated from the evil empire, but I couldn’t find a great summary page including this exact piece. Frustrating! Anybody have a good reference page for this one?

"Quamvis incredibile, semper est solutio!" (otherwise known as the famous Aztec Téchcatl, sacrificial stone) [awkwardly dedicated to my guys] (notes in post) The Téchcatl (sacrificial stone) was the altar on which human sacrifices were made by extracting the hearts of the victims. It was built into the floor in front of the temple entrance, where it faced the figure or face of the god installed at the far end of the interior. The present example differs from other known téchcatl in that it consists of the body of a two-headed serpent, the heads emerging from the sides with the mouths opened to reveal fangs. The upper part of the serpent’s curved body supported the back of the victim, who was forced down by five priests pulling at his hands, feet and head. With the victim’s back arched, a further priest was able to sink the sacrificial knife under the rib cage to extract the heart, which was thought to be the food of the gods. Source: Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo. Aztecs. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2002, pp233 So, in the fine tradition of Soap Opera (and I’m sure I’m making a fool of myself, here) – I was completely neutral upon our host / dev @rimu@piefed.social recently adding a vote cap in order to increase efficiency / load / etc, far as I understand it. This seemed to really set off @PugJesus@piefed.social, and he explained it (as I understand it) that the ‘final straw’ upon such is mainly that others wouldn’t have sufficient agency to vote on his material and contributions. I proposed that I could maybe take a compromise note to Rimu (I’m a patron of PF.S, and plan on more donations), but PJ, you never answered back. Mates, this bloody well bums me out– I love both your projects to death, and it kills me that we lost PJ’s massive historical contributions (and brilliant comments IMO) because of some… minor difference in… project sustainability / security? I simply don’t get it, but… as I was making this bumbling, tiny little post, I kinda got ‘in my feelings.’ And truly, this shizzle ain’t my business. This will indeed be the VERY LAST time I bring it up, anywhere. ("and just like that, the person known as ‘Johnny Enzyme’ was never seen again.") XD

@vicinus@piefed.zip has a nice series going in c/Fedigrow, here: Weekly Thread – Identifying Community Gaps This probably deserves its own post– a handy tool for helping communities federate more widely: https://lemmy-federate.com/ I’m still not sure if Lemmy / PF federates with Mbin. I tried some experiments earlier but got nowhere. Anybody know?

Jokes aside this is a massive issue. China / Russia / NK have been in a stealth / cyber war with the West for decades at this point. AI leveling that all up could have some pretty disastrous consequences…

The same answer as usual, I’d imagine– billionaires owning most major incorporations these days, meaning that usually the end-product is heavily processed and filtered, in line with their own interests, such as tampering with narratives and enriching their wealth.

Moderation happens before publishing: every post is first checked by AI. Sensitive content, cases where the AI is unsure, and anything flagged go through human review. Ben, in terms of that part, I suspect that pretty much already is or will be the model for most social media services, large and small.

Gorge de Pigeon glassware, Charles X More: https://www.messynessychic.com/2024/10/30/collectors-item-du-jour-the-pigeon-pink-treasures-of-post-revolutionary-france/

I suspect Mbin’s somewhat like Mastodon in that it can federate, but only under special circumstances. Par exemple, if you add hashtags to PF content, it will automatically hit Mastodon, and then Mast users can comment on the post, but otherwise the two ‘streams’ don’t seem to connect. I’m just not quite sure how that works with Mbin yet. I suspect Rimu has talked about this before, possibly with greater federation as a future feature, I just haven’t found where yet…

Curious how you’d break that down, other than Putin and monied right-wing sources tampering with major, global elections, as we’ve abundantly seen as on ongoing process, non?

TIL that Ancient Egyptians invented an early form of the pin-tumbler lock. (notes in post) A pin tumbler is a component within a cylinder lock that, along with others, prevents movement unless the correct key is used. Locks themselves are mechanical devices designed to secure doors or receptacles, requiring a key or specific manipulations to open. The pin tumbler lock, a modern adaptation of an ancient Egyptian principle, uses pins of varying lengths that must be lifted to precise heights by the key’s serrations to allow the cylinder to turn. This mechanism, evolved by Linus Yale Jr., is now widely used for its security and numerous combinations. –Britannica https://cdn.britannica.com/62/2162-004-E62563D4/Egyptian-lock.jpghttps://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/628d0045aafd10049d4b1c21/21e1a614-c47a-482a-a3af-16caef3aa8c8/egyptian+lock.jpg Locks, in various rudimentary forms, have been used for millennia, but the ancient Egyptians elevated this essential security tool to an art form. The earliest evidence of locks in Egypt dates back to around 2000 BCE, during the Middle Kingdom period. These locks were simple but effective devices made of wood and operated with a wooden key. Design and Construction Ancient Egyptian locks were crafted with remarkable precision and attention to detail. Typically made of wood or bronze, these locks were designed to withstand the test of time. The lock mechanism itself often comprised a series of pins or tumblers that had to be aligned in a specific way to allow the bolt to be withdrawn… Ancient Egyptian Locks: A Journey into Millennia-old Security: https://cronolock.ca/the-lock-blog/unveiling-the-secrets-of-ancient-egyptian-locks-a-journey-into-millennia-old-security

A joke I sometimes make when I get a particularly long (generally useless) receipt is: "thanks! that should be just enough to finish wall-papering the south room!"

Meanwhile this admin seems to be doing everything it can to defund science (amongst everything else). It seems so bizarre to me to see their swathe of supporters who seem so skeptical and even hostile to science, yet whose lives are utterly chock a block with utilities, luxuries and toys made possible by science.

Four quadricorn hats. Peru, Wari civilization, 7th-9th century AD. Long before the Incas, to be clear. What’s strange to me is that in the course of my job / life, I’ve seen a load of Peruvian artifacts over the years across Peruvian and American museums, and yet these are somehow quite unique to me. oO Major thanks to u/MunakataSennin for this info! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314620https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316966https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316964https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316988