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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)AN
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1,185
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2 yr. ago

  • It seems like the relevant section in the Ubisoft EULA says

    "Upon termination for any reason, You must immediately uninstall the Product and destroy all copies of the Product in Your possession."

    I read this wording of this to be stricter than the BG3 example you shared, because the BG3 one seems to be saying "if you don't agree to this EULA (or if you agree, but later terminate that agreement), then you must uninstall the game". Whereas the Ubisoft one seems to include Ubisoft terminating the agreement, rather than just the user. That's just my interpretation of these snippets though, as someone who is not a lawyer. It's possible that the BG3 EULA also includes other parts that would mean similar to what people are unhappy about on the Ubisoft EULA

  • You have reminded me that StreetComplete exists. I used to use it a while back, but for the last few years, I lived in an area that was already pretty thoroughly mapped. However, I would wager that where I live now is more sparsely documented; I've only recently moved here, and StreetComplete could be a nice way to become more settled.

  • I think maps can be used for other stuff than just navigating. You're quite right that this would be useless for actually navigating (which is probably the main purpose of using a map or other navigation software), but it could be a fun concept for looking back on things.

    I don't use Google stuff as much nowadays, so they might have gotten rid of it (knowing Google, I wouldn't be surprised), but I remember that one of the sections within the Google maps app was a "Timeline" section. I used that section a few times to check whether I actually went to a particular appointment that was scheduled a month or so prior, or to check which restaurant I ate at when I was last in [city]. I also found it fun to look at the overview of things, like being able to see the pins corresponding to the silly road trip I took with friends a few years ago. It's nice to look back every now and then.

  • Location data is one of the things that you can export through Google takeout , I believe — though I'm not sure what format that would come in.

    I don't imagine it would be too hard for a dedicated nerd who is procrastinating other work to write a thing to parse that data and view it in a map based on something more open, like Openstreetmaps.

  • A friend of a friend is the daughter of a Russian oligarch. It was a messy situation in which she was at risk of being drawn into the politics, even though her dad was an asshole who she would've been glad to see defenestrated. I only know the surface level info, but it sounds like a fucked up situation in many ways

  • What's really stupid about this cycle is that some of these fail-upward executives genuinely believe the crap they're spewing. Weirdly, I think I respect the grifting executives more

    Edit: by grifting executives, I mean the ones who participate in that cycle you describe, and are aware of the harms they cause in their wake, but don't care because they've gotten good at knowing when to skip out

  • I don't typically experience imposter syndrome.

    However, it is my understanding that the majority of people I know seem to experience imposter syndrome (likely influenced by the fact that my social circle is mostly academics)

    Thus I seem to be the odd one out in this respect, paradoxically causing me to feel like an imposter for not experiencing imposter syndrome.

    ¯(ツ)_/¯

  • A sex worker friend told me that he had some homophobic (male) clients who didn't seem to be gay, but frequented male sex workers. This confused me, but he explained that it seems to be part of a convoluted humiliation kink thing, rather than attraction.

    For example, I know a subby guy whose domme makes him kiss her feet. She does this because he finds feet gross, and thus ordering him thus is a humiliating and submissive act that he ultimately finds hot. This association has become strong enough that even outside of the specific context of scenes with his domme, he finds the prospect of footplay arousing, whilst simultaneously still being grossed out by feet. He finds the paradoxical vibes of this hilarious, and indeed, reports that it's one of the things he finds fulfilling about kink play.

    In the case of homophobic straight men who have gay sex, it's far more psychosexually complex. However, one plausible angle of it is that some men may actually just want to be pegged, but conservative attitudes may mean that being fucked by a woman with a strap-on is perceived as more taboo and transgressive than being fucked by another man.

    Another bizarre example my friend relayed to me was an instance of a man who engaged in gay sex as a form of self-harm that was felt to be deserved due to being insufficiently masculine. In this scenario, the homophobic client was topping. The guy apparently seemed to believe in a sort of "conservation of masculinity" in penetrative sex. For example, let's say that any act of penetrative sex (anal or vaginal, it matters not) contains a total of 10 arbitrary units of masculinity. In this guy's ideal of How Sex Should Be, the penetrative partner would contain all 10 units of masculinity, and his partner, with 0 units of masculinity, would be the mostly womanly woman to ever woman. However, this dude was pretty insecure in his masculinity, and he would probably rate himself as having only 6 units of masculinity. This is sufficient for him to feel comfortable being the one who penetrates his partner, but by the principle of conservation of masculinity, this would mean that "balanced" sex would involve a partner with 4 units of masculinity.

    I don't intend to kink shame anyone, but frankly I find this bizarre, because it sounds like this guy is genuinely quite disgusted by having sex with another man (and likely not attracted to men either), but feels even more disgusted by the prospect of feeling insufficiently masculine and having sex with a woman. It's like the gay sex is a punishment for not attaining the impossible ideal of hegemonic masculinity. I asked my friend if it wasn't more likely that the dude is just gay and has a heckton of internalised homophobia to work through, but he was pretty sure of his assessment. I'm told that the job involves a surprising amount of "I'm not a therapist, but I'm the closest thing you have to one, so let's talk".

  • Only water when the soil is dry at least an inch deep. When you do water, water thoroughly, until water is freely coming from the drainage holes in the bottom. An optional way to water thoroughly is to let the plant pot stand in a tray of water for half an hourish (I use an inch or so of water). This is called "bottom up watering"

    Make sure that any pot you use has drainage holes. A common mistake beginners make is to plant directly into decorative pots that have no drainage holes. This is bad because when the soil doesn't have enough chance to dry out between waterings, it leads to root rot. You can still use a pretty pot if you want, just make sure that you have an inner pot with drainage holes that you can take out of the exterior pot when it's watering time. (The decorative exterior pots can be useful for causing things to tip over less).

    Finally, don't assume that succulents or cacti will be happy in bright, direct sun. They can still get scorched.

  • Whilst not open source, I appreciate that the notes are locally stored in straightforward markdown. I no longer use Obsidian, but I appreciated how there was next to no platform lock-in (the only snag I experienced in moving to a different note taking approach was a couple of plugins that gave additional features. But that's easy to avoid if portability of data is important)

  • I'm inclined to agree. I hate AI, and I especially hate artists and other creatives being shafted, but I'm increasingly doubtful that copyright is an effective way to ensure that they get their fair share (whether we're talking about AI or otherwise).

  • me_irl

    Jump
  • I've been working at getting better at being mediocre at things. So far, it's been a source of positive growth, but I do find it ironic how even when it comes to this, I feel compelled to frame it to myself as improving at a thing

  • Doesn't it only work if you then return to a lower altitude? I wonder how long the benefits last for.

    Now that I think about it, I don't actually know how this even works. Well I know what I'm going to go read about next.

    Edit: My findings:

    • At high altitude, cardiac output (the overall rate of blood pumped by the heart) increases, largely due to increased heart rate. This increased heart rate reduces as one acclimatises to high altitude (though I'm unsure of if it returns to baseline. It appears to be complex, and at least somewhat differing person by person. These individual differences may explain why some people experience health problems at high altitude, beyond the initial ill feelings caused from first arriving somewhere that's high altitude)
    • The stroke volume (volume of blood pumped by each beat of the heart) is lower at high altitudes. This does improve as one acclimatises, but not entirely. This seems to be affected by blood pressure stuff, such as reduced plasma volume at high altitude. It seems to be complex enough that we don't fully understand how the various regulatory stuff works.
    • Most of the acclimatisation occurs by increasing the number of red blood cells in the blood. The hormone erythropoietin, which usually exists at a low level in non-hypoxic conditions, stimulates the production of new red blood cells. At high altitude, the level of erythropoietin in the blood rises to around 1000 times its baseline level. Increased production of red blood cells happens for a few weeks, by which point, there is enough to make up for lower oxygen levels at high altitude.
    • When returning to low altitude, it appears that the changes back to the baseline happen over a similar timeline.

    Tangential fun fact: a red blood cell has a lifetime of around 4 months. A single red blood cell travels around 400 miles before it is old enough to be recycled by the body.