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News 20h ago
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US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 20h ago 80%

    Okay, say this was true. I'm not saying it is, but let's carry this argument to the next step.

    IQ is a score that shows how well someone can solve problems and think compared to other people their age. It doesn’t measure how smart you are in every way, but it can help show how strong your brain is in certain kinds of thinking. So let's say, okay, they aren't born smart, but we'll train them to BE smart, and this screening will make it easier because we won't be working upstream against "the dumbness," or whatever. Kid has the capacity to be smart, now all we have to do is train them, right?

    Next, you have to assume that their parents and environment allows for this. These services will be available for rich parents only, which historically have been a better environment for teaching. But it also will give these "high IQ kids" access to parents of conservative, "Christian values" as well as liberal rich kids. So now we have a problem. What if having a high IQ also leads to insanity? We haven't even defined what "smart" is, really, and so a lot of conservatives, "smart" means "stronger than your enemy." Intelligence without compassion breeds psychosis, and leadership qualities that are sociopathic and ruthless. And that INCLUDES turning on their own kind. But that's what they want, right? "Survival of the fittest," a kind of social Darwinism.

    "Sorry dad. I know you raised me to be the head of the company, but I gutted it instead, and will be funding my super-race and frankly...? You're genetically inferior. Goodbye."

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  • Why do residential skyscrapers always seem to include balconies that never get used?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3d ago 100%

    I find them too windy and noisy half the time. They are also wet half the time, either from condensation or recent rain.

    5
  • Amazon cloud boss says employees unhappy with 5-day office mandate can leave
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4d ago 97%

    Layoffs are not bad press. Not to the shareholders, the only ones who matter to these types. I used to think "oh, layoffs mean the company isn't doing so good," but shareholders see "they reduced cost but lost no customers, thus increasing value of the company should it be sold."

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  • Kamala Harris 'is in control of this hurricane' using 'weather weapons': Alex Jones
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 2w ago 75%

    "Are these 'weather weapons' in the room with you right now?"

    2
  • One must imagine Sisyphus able to see
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3w ago 100%

    Zenni was a game changer. I could get their top-of-the-line titanium frames with glass and auto-tinting for like $130 from them, or get the most basic birth control plastic frames with acrylic from my optometrist for no less than $900. Most of my glasses from Zenni are $80 or less, and yes, I have to wait 4-6 weeks. The optometrists are super-upset about this, too. Like some refuse to give me my prescription or pupillary distance, with high-pressure sales tactics and dire warnings. I have been told I'd ruin my eyes with "toxic metals" and "frames that will burn sunlight into my face and retinas."

    Well. It's been nearly 20 years, and none of that has happened.

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  • what is the worst idea you ever had?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4w ago 100%

    I was out of sugar, so I tried to sweeten Kool-Aid with honey. Nope. Just god-awful.

    24
  • Anon quits their job
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4w ago 100%

    I had an assistant who didn't really need the job, but her parents forced her to have one. She was the youngest, and only girl, of a family of 5 siblings. All her older brothers worked at the race track that their family owned, and she was dating someone they didn't approve of. I liked her boyfriend, he seemed friendly and soft-spoken, but her folks were like "if you're going to date whom you want, you better have a job and live on your own." Well, one day, she got mad because I asked her to work a shift she didn't want to. So she simply didn't show up, which really fucked me over. So I called her up, pretty pissed. No answer.

    She didn't show up for 3 days. So I fired her for job abandonment. She didn't really need the job, right? Her parents owned a racetrack.

    A week later, her folks called me, and asked if I'd seen her. No, she didn't show up for work ever again. They panicked. "OMFG WE DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS!" They immediately assumed her BF kidnapped and/or murdered her. The police were called, an investigation was opened up. Her BF's address showed he'd moved away. I had to sit with the police and go through an interrogation about her last whereabouts. She became a missing person, and once a week for two months, her parents called and asked if I had heard anything. The detective called with more questions. Then her car was found in an impound lot: it had been abandoned and looted in a New Jersey parking garage. Then the calls petered off and stopped.

    A year went by, and I assumed the worst.

    One day, one of the employees in another store in the mall told me he saw her with her BF. I didn't believe them, but then other people said that they'd seen her, and corroborated some stories she told them. Apparently, she had been planning to run away for some time, and just ran away with her BF and went NC with her family. That didn't work out so well, because both had trouble finding jobs and then their car got carjacked. Both of them were forced to return home, and her parents were forced to reconcile that she was never going to leave her BF.

    I was pretty pissed, though, that I thought she was dead.

    4
  • Since cats don't pant like dogs how do they release trapped heat?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4w ago 100%

    Cats can pant, I have seen it happen in times of extreme stress, and is often a bad sign. Like dogs, cats may pant if they are anxious or overheated. Strenuous exercise may be another reason, especially after a huge fight. Once your cat has had a chance to rest, calm down and cool down, this sort of painting should subside. However, even this type of panting is much more rarely seen in cats than in dogs. So, if you’re not 100% positive about why your cat is panting, it’s best to bring her to the vet.

    A side note, however, I misread this as "since cat's don't like pants like dogs," and wanted to point out that dogs also do not like to wear pants, before my anti-dyslexia medicine kicked in.

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    196 punkwalrus 1mo ago 98%
    Oh no, me cheese

    Mood

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    I just want to make cookies :(
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 1mo ago 100%

    One revolution I have realized in baking is the recent trend to start talking about weight and not volume in recipes for certain dry ingredients like flour. Three cups of fluffy sifted flour is a lot less flour than three cups of densely packed flour. Same with brown sugar, or wondering if you need a "flat teaspoon" vs. a "heaping teaspoon" of something.

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  • Morphing spray-on gel gives buildings long-lasting wildfire protection
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 2mo ago 92%

    When eventually washed off, the aerogel is handily broken down by soil microbes.

    I am not going to claim to be an expert on any of this BUT that wording sounds suspiciously like bullshit. Maybe it's not, but it's one of those phrases that sounds like when vitamin companies claim that more B12 has shown to fix whatever ails you. Or "our plastic is environmentally friendly: 100% recyclable, and breaks down into teeny micro-particles over time, and gets absorbed by the sea life like ordinary sand..."

    21
  • Bing says Alpha Centauri is 13.6 kilometers from us
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 2mo ago 100%

    That explains why it's so hot outside.

    6
  • Tech CEOs are backtracking on RTO mandates—now, just 3% want workers in the office full-time
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 100%

    I have had two tech jobs like that, even before COVID, starting in 2016. The first time, it was a company that outgrew their workspace. They put us in 'rent-an-office' spaces for a bit, and then my boss started working from home a few days a week. Then he allowed me to. We moved to a new office, but it was always empty in my section. That was fine, too, but the commute was terrible, so I started doing 2 days a week, then once a week, then a few times a month. I rarely saw my other coworkers in person, and nobody said anything aloud.

    The next job started because of COVID, and when they started doing RTO, they also wanted to do "hot desking" (no assigned seating) and open office plans, and I was not having that. I was not going to work in a "cafeteria" like setting. So I got contracted work and have worked from home 100% for several years now. Nobody has office space, and we work all over the world to collaborate. I get paid very well.

    I hope i never had to go back to an office. I reach retirement age in about 15 years, and I am hoping to make it.

    36
  • "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearMI
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    You know you've always wanted to be a golden retriever.
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 97%

    Trying getting out of that in your 50s with arthritis setting in. Oof.

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  • What's the furthest you've ever gone with a dare?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 100%

    This was also where "yo momma" insults were also invisible to me. Like, "You don't even know my mother, you're just saying that and it makes no sense." It wasn't a trigger for me like it was other kids. I saw it for what it was. I'd tell my friends, "they just say that to get you mad, don't listen," but they'd get mad anyway. It's like they couldn't help it. I think dares were in that headspace as well.

    I wasn't popular growing up. I was really awkward and non-athletic, so I didn't bow to peer pressure as much as the other kids. I was going to be unpopular either way, so...

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  • news
    News 3mo ago
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    'It was a cult': Traumatizing troubled teens
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 100%

    I think this is one of the extreme examples of revenge instead of rehabilitation. It's a prime breeding ground for control freaks who want to punish those that break the rules, and will stop at nothing to try to accomplish this by dealing out damage via a morality defense. And I think a lot of parents know this, at some level, as revenge for not conforming to their definition of normalcy. "Retribution for being bad." Like mob mentality.

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  • news
    News 3mo ago
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    'It was a cult': Traumatizing troubled teens
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 91%

    In the bible you get permission to declare your teenager wayward, take them outside the city gates and stone them to death.

    I was like, "Really...?" But sure enough:

    Deuteronomy 21:18-21

    If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them. Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

    ... k.

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  • What's the furthest you've ever gone with a dare?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 92%

    As a kid, I never got that concept because it seemed like being manipulated. "I dare you to do this dangerous thing for my amusement!" Uh. No? "Chicken!" Okay, whatever, dude.

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  • Anybody else think it was messed up that Data kept Spot trapped in his quarters?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 3mo ago 94%

    Wait, didn't spot become pregnant with an unknown other ship cat? This would imply at least some kind of free roaming.

    https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Spot

    In 2370, Spot became pregnant by one of the twelve male cats aboard the Enterprise-D at that time. Data paid attention to her health, including bringing her to sickbay for a check-up just before giving birth. (TNG: "Genesis")

    I checked a transcript, and saw this line between him an Barclay, implying not only that Spot "escaped," but that there are other cats also loose:

    BARCLAY: I'm curious, sir. Who's the father?

    DATA: I am not certain. Spot has escaped from my quarters on several occasions and there are twelve male felines on board. I intend to run a full DNA analysis on the kittens once they [he is interrupted by Picard on speaker]

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  • Humans didn't invent agriculture
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4mo ago 100%

    I mean, the Roman Empire was an olive tree superorganism. Prove me wrong.

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  • whats something that brings you back to your childhood happy place?
  • punkwalrus punkwalrus 4mo ago 100%

    This sounds kind of sad, but bear with me. This was c. 1976-1980.

    My father was mostly absent, but I prefered his neglect to his abuse, so that was okay. He'd go on business trips a lot. My mom was an alcoholic, and sometimes she'd be passed out for days. I grew up an only child in a suburban home, and some weekends a year, I had the house to myself. From age 8-12, I had a few weekends here and there where fortune fell upon me and I'd be alone in the house with no real responsibilities. Friday night home from school to Monday morning going to school, all I had to do was check if my mother was still passed out, and if so, it was like one long vacation from my life to be myself. Bonus if there was still food in the house, which usually there was something I could cook myself.

    I wasn't allowed to watch TV as a kid, except sanctioned PBS shows, but we had a small B&W TV in the kitchen for my mom's soap operas and cooking shows. I'd drag up all my Legos, pour them on the kitchen table, and watch "illegal TV" all weekend while building stuff with my Legos. Eating when I wanted to, or not, and I had free reign of pretty much anything there.

    My positive childhood memories are scant and few, and most are just things like that. Like "sometimes the sun came out, if only for a brief time, before the storms returned." I have a lot more as an adult.

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  • "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearAS
    Ask Old People punkwalrus 1y ago 100%
    Born in 1968 - Pre Beatles breakup, pre-woodstock, post JFK assassination and I feel fine...

    Just putting that out there. Sadly, I was born overseas to American parents who were kind of over-intellectualized and against pop media, so a lot of my generation of American kids passed me by. I didn't "get into pop culture" until the punk rock generation of the late 70s and early 80s, and by then I was a theater geek, D&D gamer, and sci fi nerd. But I can tell you all about growing up near Washington DC in the 80s! REAGANOMICS! :P

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