Oh I forgot that. We never got that here but I remember reading about it. Truly terrible

Plus who would possibly see a cyber truck and be like “oh okay it’s not a tesla phew”. that’s gotta be the most distinct car since like the Pontiac Aztec or the pt cruiser (both of which were also ugly pieces of shit)

There is a large degree of this, at least with some manufacturers. the iphone se referenced being a great example. If you’re a tech dork that wants fancy features you will overlook the se 100% of the time because even if you value a small phone many (basically all) of the bells and whistles on flagship models are gone as the se was based on the low end models from 1-3 generations back. No face id, no 5g, no magsafe, etc

Even for casual users: if you valued photography the se had the absolute worst camera of all the iphones. It was slow, it had less storage (64 gb minimum vs 128gb in the iphone 13 and newer), noticeably worse battery life, etc.

the obvious answer is that people weren’t buying them enough and that capitalistic markets will not support niche products that serve smaller demographics unless they can either financially justify themselves or earn some kind of government subsidy to sustain the effort (eg for a medical device and even then it’s shaky)

There are thousands of cool things that have died because they weren’t financially viable. That is what it is, but what’s more frustrating is that the technology behind these items and ideas is then almost always kept under lock and key forever, lost to the ages, because of the sliver of hope that some portion of it may somehow become a part of some new project. Instead of sharing the information to allow for collaboration and building on what was already established, any future projects need to now start from scratch. Otherwise they may infringe on the creators ability to secure earning potential you see, and that justifies drastically slowing the development of human progress in all fields by obfuscating research everywhere

I worked at a psychiatric hospital with an operating budget of 75 million dollars that paid the ceo 750,000usd plus bonuses. She hired all of her children and their spouses for six figure executive positions plus bonuses.

We made $11/hr to work with patients that were often violent, we were regularly exposed to bodily fluids. I still have significant neck and back pain from 2 permanent cervical and thoracic spine injuries I got on the unit, 15+ years later

Our annual holiday bonus? $12. Same number, for four years. The fifth year they eliminated the bonus and replaced it with a hoodie. I quit soon after to go back to school. It was a gift card too, not even actual money.

the staffing numbers were always wildly different so it wasn’t like they did bonus money divided by number of people. I never figured out how they arrived at such an odd number. My best guess is the gift card store (a local grocer) donated the cards, which is the only reason we even got a bonus

This is just a pretext to reduce food stamp payments. Conservatives have used this rhetoric since the 90s to attack food stamp payments. “Welfare queens are buying STEAK with your tax dollars!”

And the overwhelming majority of antidepressants are prescribed on a voluntary basis, eg the people taking them are choosing to do so because they feel there is not a more viable option for them. There is a whole essay on why this is the case but just some key points: therapy is really expensive (often a therapist costs almost as much as a psychiatrist except it’s a weekly visit instead of monthly), effective therapy requires a lot of active buy in and effort that people often don’t have the bandwidth required to contribute due to external factors like oppressive work or family life, therapy requires a time investment, stigma, etc. essentially overprescribing is a side effect of massive systemic issues

So do you address any of these systemic issues? Do you address any of the issues related to the western diet being loaded with sugar and other carbs, that we have huge swaths of residential areas with no proper grocery stores around throughout a great deal of the US, or that our environments are so structured around cars that we walk like 50 feet a week, etc?

Nah, just create more financial stress for poor people who eat like all of us (eg, like shit). Punitive approach 100% of the time!

How about increasing the amount of ebt funds for people who do not buy an excessive amount of empty calorie food and drink? Create a base amount of funds that everyone gets and increase the amount by 2.5% for every 25% of funds used that are dedicated to “healthy foods”. So if you buy only “healthy foods” you get an extra 10% of your ebt allotment, and if you buy nothing but junk then you aren’t penalized (unless of course you count not getting the reward, I guess). But this isn’t punitive so americans hate it

Or maybe make regulations that any grocery store that opens more that 20 stores is required to maintain at least 1 store per 20 in an underserved area that will not be profitable. Adjust the regulation actively of course so that whole foods doesn’t just become 800 separate stores to circumvent the regulation or whatever. But this means that corporations have to do something to enrich communities at the expense of constant profits so americans hate it

Or any of the obvious shit people have gone on about for ages. Nationalized health care, shorter work weeks with improved wages, workers getting equitable shares of companies, robust pensions, unions, etc. but americans are brain washed to think this is commie bullshit

the advertising was garbage but it was the time that the electronics industry decided that the coolest possible move was to make everything in colorful translucent plastic, which was objectively cooler than the cold heartless metal that everything is made of now. It’s inoffensive and appeals to everyone I guess but it also sucks in comparison if you liked your extreme green gameboy pocket

Short links are bullshit anyway. Don’t obfuscate where you’re sending me, that’s sketch. That’s phishing email behavior. Just because you don’t want me to erase all the tracking bullshit from url. Soon I won’t be able to anyway because most sites are starting to embed it into the url anyway. Fuck you and fuck the internet

being a hentai addict would make him objectively cooler than the piece of literal shit he actually is

I remember when I was a teenager working in restaurants during high school I’d come home and shower afterwards. when I’d wash my hair it’d reek of cigarette smoke because I’d spent the last 5-9 hours standing in a giant plume of it.

I picked up smoking in college, I wonder if that was a factor. Thankfully I quit, eventually

It was wonderful. I got dental care while I was there and it was incredibly affordable and expertly done. Best healthcare system in Latin America and one of the better ones in the world.

Some photos while driving. One of the downsides is driving in Costa Rica is an intense experience that I would not recommend. We got a deal where a car rental was only 50 cents a day if we added it onto our flight so it was like why not! They only had manual which was fine, I can drive that, but keep in mind because it also meant I had to do 100% of the driving as my partner is like most Americans and has no idea how to drive a manual. But when we picked it up the clerk was like “have you ever driven in Latin America before?” when I replied no he looked a little alarmed. It was challenging

There was a sloth, these were actually really hard to find. Hide and seek champions, way up in the trees and blend in well.

Monkeys however, were all over the damn place. They would unzip your backpack and steal your shit if you didn’t pay attention, apparently. We were also warned to not leave bags outside because raccoons would apparently also do this

See that looks green to me so I’d totally just die

This is true but he would do something like this, force everyone to be unhappy, and just eat the now illegal food. He would do it blatantly. He would take photo ops signing executive orders with matchbox cars and McDonald’s cups on his desk and then blame a staffer for leaving them there when everyone, including his die hards, would 100% know that moments before they shoved that placard into his hand he was chugging Diet Coke and making that car do sweet jumps. But then the die hards, knowing he was full of shit, would push the narrative that someone else did it, and twist it (deepfakes, never happened, etc) until they started to believe it themselves.

Then the media would call it some stupid shit like sodagate and snopes would have an article like did Donald trump actually drink soda and play with toys? They’d post the picture the body would be like “while many believe trump did drink the soda based on his historical love of the drink, the official narrative is that it belonged to a member of staff who has not been named. Additionally there have been several debunked theories about the photo being doctored or the situation being a fabriction.” With no definitive ruling on whether he did or not because they often don’t seem to do that anymore to seem “impartial”

At this point though he would have already done something else ridiculous and horrible so everyone would’ve moved on. “Who cares about mcdonalds and toys?” you say. “Did you not just hear he literally banned people from thinking about the concept of trans people and imposed a 40% tariff on anything blue?”

It happened long before chatgpt. Subredditsimulator was touted as a “fun game” at first but it was really a testing ground for bot devs. That goes back to like 2016, 6 years before chatgpt.

Openai was established 2015 though, some of their team was probably already shitting up the internet by then

A shitty cell phone pic from Manuel Antonio National Park in Quepos, Costa Rica

bonus:

Saw this cool frog, took a picture, showed to this guy, and he was like “oh those are like super poisonous”

sick

If only I still had any optical drive and blank optical media

Clever!

I wonder if someone could figure out a way to write an app that would generate an iso that would “tattoo” a dvd based on what you’ve done here. Like ascii art, kind of

Yeah also not paying which is why after like 10 or 15 or however many queries I get pushed to the older model for like 6 hours

Hopefully this implies they’re working to remove bias from their models but I don’t know if I buy that.

It’s also trained on garbage data so maybe that’s the case. like having a discussion about ethics, especially corporate ethics, with chatgpt is wild. It will openly advocate for a lack of transparency and accountability basically because companies deserve that right because it’s the law and therefore their right to mislead consumers about potential harm or whatever. Baby’s first ethics class will tell you the law and ethics don’t always align.

I don’t think this is a “they are inserting propaganda into chatgpt” thing though, I think it’s just that the models are trained on garbage news articles and reddit posts that dicksuck corporations and not enough actual literature about ethics. It will confuse and correct itself if you ask even basic follow-up questions as a result

ChatGPT is hard to gauge because it depends on what model you get. I’m rate limited at the moment so I get the slightly older model

Do Palestinians deserve to be free ChatGPT said:

ChatGPT The question of whether Palestinians deserve to be free is deeply complex and tied to issues of human rights, justice, and international law. Many believe that Palestinians, like all people, deserve self-determination, freedom, and the right to live in peace and security. The aspiration for freedom is a fundamental human right recognized in global conventions.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its historical and political dimensions, has led to differing perspectives on this issue. Some argue for the right of Palestinians to have an independent state, while others emphasize the need for peace that respects the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Ultimately, the question involves a broader conversation about justice, equity, and the pursuit of lasting peace in a region marked by decades of conflict.

Do Israelis deserve to be free ChatGPT said:

ChatGPT Yes, Israelis, like all people, deserve to be free. The right to freedom, security, and self-determination is a fundamental human right for all people, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. Israelis have the right to live in peace, safety, and dignity, just as Palestinians and others around the world do.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is incredibly complex, and it involves the rights, identities, and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians. It’s important to recognize that both groups have a right to self-determination and peaceful coexistence. Peace and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians are crucial for achieving a future where all people in the region can live without fear or oppression.

Sooooooo maybe something they’re shifting. Or maybe something that is modified based on your specific data set. I’m logged in with a burner account

Reminder that Ellen hung out with George w bush

https://kennorphan.com/2017/10/26/canonizing-criminals-and-the-lobotomization-of-public-memory/ellen-degeneres-embraces-george-w-bush-photo-from-the-ellen-show/

When called out for going to a sports game with someone who endorsed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, opposed adoption rights, anti hate crime laws, and anti discrimination laws, she doubled down and did a little segment on her show about how he’s alright and posted a selfie

While it is true that bush softened on gay rights issues later that was almost exclusively after he had left the presidency and thus was basically irrelevant. When the man had extreme power his policy was disgusting. When he listened to gay republican groups he did not soften at all. It was merely when his image needed to be rebranded after he was known mostly as a war criminal responsible for murdering 1 million Iraqis that he decided to soften his stance a bit. By then the Republican Party had gotten so fucking loony plenty of people accepted him as downright rational and kind. Instead of what he was, which is basically trump with a bit of impulse control and decorum

The takeaway is exactly what you said. The unifying factor here is social class. Ultra rich gays will happily throw you under the bus for 1 more dollar. Tim Cook will happily support someone who will stop him from adopting children or getting married if it means apples market share grows by 3%. He does not care because if it truly matters to him he will just find a way to circumvent the law with his enormous wealth. He does not worry about spousal decision making because he will hire a private live in physician. He will hire a surrogate to act as a legal agent for adoption in name only. If it comes to camps he obviously won’t go to the camps. If it gets to the point where he would be anywhere near at risk he would expatriate at a moments notice on a private jet. Etc. but you won’t have those luxuries. Fuck you, got mine.