Extremely frivolous stuff, but there's a fun debate going down over on Aella's twitter about personal hygiene. In short, as a true empiricist, she measures lots of stuff about her daily routine (iirc, using an app called Daylio), and recently revealed her stats for 2023. What is causing a kerfuffle is not the number of days she had s*x (63), took Adderall (126), or escorted (6), but the number of times she showered, namely 37 [sic].

Aella insists she doesn't smell (and says she's consulted with others to confirm this), but I think that's a very relative statement; some people seem to have a high baseline tolerance for stank of various kinds, to the point that even strong odours don't register to them as stank, while others like myself are very smell sensitive; at the risk of TMI, my wife was amused that I could tell when our kids in their diaper days had done a pee, because I could always smell it almost immediately even when she had no idea. Back in my online dating days, there were several dates I simply couldn't follow up on because the person I was with had bad personal hygiene. I'm not talking about a mild healthy body odour here, but when you're having s*x doggy-style and get hit by bad butt-stench it's an instant boner kill. And I'll be honest, I've had a crush on Aella for ages; she's a very attractive nerdy woman, and as a sexually confident and charismatic female Rationalist, she is a very horny unicorn among horses. But I've got to say, learning that specific factoid about her life had a similar effect on my idle long-distance lust as an F150's tires do on a small rodent (not that she should care, of course - just putting it out there).

That said, I am a bit of ablutomaniac - I shower and/or bathe 2-3 times a day. I don't think it's a hygiene thing per se. I shower when I get up because it helps me feel awake and ready for the day; I often have a shower or bath in the late afternoon/early evening after a workout because it feels great to soak sore muscles; and I sometimes shower just before bed, because I find it really nice to get into a bed with clean, fresh-smelling sheets having just come out of the shower smelling clean and fresh myself. I also routinely use (carefully chosen, subtle) cologne on my body as well as both fabric conditioner and scent booster when washing my clothes.

Anyway, Aella's feed is pretty funny right now, to the point that she's holding polls about showering, and I was curious what folks here think about it. Obviously me and Aella are at different ends of the ablutic spectrum, but what's a healthy normal number of times to shower/bathe per day? How much of it is down to personal preference?

I don't care about your parasocial simping drama.

Then skip the thread and move on. This is unnecessarily antagonistic and just plain obnoxious. Banned for a day.

She definitely has a bit of spectrum face going on. That will throw a lot of people off.

She has a playful and inquisitive vibe which a lot of people find appealing.

I admit I find it concerning that days she had s*x is greater than days she showered. But there is that famous line from Napoleon to Josephine, “Home in three days. Don't bathe.”

There's probably some deep primal appeal to her BO.

Reminder: It is impossible to be rational and a strag at the same time

https://twitter.com/paulg

This was his ultimate tweet:

You will own nothing and be happy etc.

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/z2s93d/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/z2vc1j/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/z2yh1d/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/z30ia8/mercedes_is_charging_1200_a_year_for_faster/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/z2w6p4/you_wouldnt_download_basic_features_of_a_car/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/mercedes_benz/comments/z2x9sd/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/BMW/comments/z2wpet/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/StallmanWasRight/comments/z325hy/mercedes_locks_faster_acceleration_behind_a_1200/?sort=controversial

https://twitter.com/verge/status/1595422975972454401#m

https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status/1595453546190602242

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2022%2F11%2F23%2F23474969%2Fmercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price&since=&until=&near=

To be fair, you need to have a very high iq to understand CRUD applications

https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/ysbvon/ftx_files_for_bankruptcy_protections_in_us/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ysbvcj/ftx_bankruptcy/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/search?q=FTX+bankruptcy&restrict_sr=&sort=relevance&t=all

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1591074509456834563

https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1591087215270297600

https://rdrama.life/h/wallstreetbets/post/122143/wake-up-babe-btc-is-crashing

https://rdrama.net/post/122158/ftx-cryptocurrency-exchange-declared-bankruptcymarseyitsover

Orange site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33542473

Gundam and other entertainment have replaced politics on Japanese Twitter Trends after new owner Elon Musk laid off thousands of employees at the company.

The layoffs included the Twitter Curation team, which at least one Japanese journ*list has attributed this change from politics to entertainment on the team's dissolution.

Business Insider Japan writer Ikeko Takeshita explained that normally her and her colleagues create content to be pushed to Twitter and that the curation team would ensure a "Moment" is created.

These Moments are featured alongside Twitter Trends to highlight current events and news coverage:

確かにTwitterのニュースフィードは更新されてない気がする。私たちメディアは自社記事のモーメントを作成→Twitterキュレーションチームに連絡→審査の上ピックされたりされなかったり、という手順を踏んできたのだけど、この作業はしばらくは意味を成さないのかな？\

I'm pretty sure Twitter's news feed isn't updated. We media created a moment for our own article → , contacted the Twitter curation team → , and it may or may not have been selected after screening, but this work has made sense for a while. I wonder if there isn't?

In response to this tweet, one user pointed out that Takeshita's complaints could be considered an admission of "collusion between management and specific media".

Users appear to consider the new trending list as more authentic than the politics-infused list allegedly curated by Twitter, which is a fair assumption. It's safe to say that Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch from Mercury is probably more interesting than local politics.

A list of recent Japanese trends can be found below which includes things like Gundam, J-Pop, and anime series.

Japanese users have compared this list to previous days where almost all trending topics were political in nature. The user who posted the list called the new trends "peaceful" and joked about how the curation team must have spend their time "sorting out topics like this every day".

While some journ*lists are confused by the way Twitter is operating now, it's unclear if the removal of the Twitter Curation team is the cause of the issue.

According to the team's official site, the group was only in charge of "contextualizing" Trends; though the group does admit to curating Moments. This change may have already made it's way to the west as well, at the time of writing (it's Election Day in the US) #GodofWarRagnarok is currently more popular than #ElectionNight.

https://nicheg*mer.com/gundam-anime-twitter-trends/

The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week in two cases that could change the landscape of higher education in the country. The eventual outcomes will determine whether Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill are allowed to use race as a factor in deciding which students they admit. But beyond that, the court's decisions could mean that academic institutions across the United States will no longer be allowed to use 'affirmative action' policies to shape their student bodies.

Research has shown that without affirmative action, some universities --- particularly top-tier institutions that enrol only a small fraction of applicants --- will struggle to admit students from a wide variety of backgrounds1,2. "This will have ripple effects regarding who's not able to have a seat at the table and enter certain professions," says Julie Park, a researcher at the University of Maryland in College Park whose work focuses on racial equality in higher education.

Both cases have been spearheaded by activist Edward Blum, who created Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), an organization that represents "more than 20,000 students, parents, and others who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair". As the plaintiff in both cases, SFFA argues that, by considering race in their admissions, Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill are discriminating against certain applicants, such as Asian American people. This, the group says, violates a clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution prohibiting states from denying anyone equal protection of the law, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill, however, argue that affirmative action has helped them to even out the playing field for Black and Latinx students who have not had the same educational opportunities as others because of systemic racism in the United States.

Here, *Nature *explains the cases and what hangs in the balance.

What is behind these lawsuits?

The lawsuits aim to overturn a decision that the Supreme Court made about a case in 2003. In Grutter v. Bollinger, a white woman named Barbara Grutter alleged that she had been rejected from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor because of the institution's use of race as a factor in its admissions decisions. She argued that the practice violated the Fourteenth Amendment and a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits racial discrimination by any programmes that receive federal financial assistance (the university is a public institution and receives such funding). In this instance, the court decided that the law school was allowed to consider the race of individual applicants, so long as it was done in a 'holistic' way --- meaning that race is one factor among many that are considered. The justices also ruled that it is constitutional to consider race as part of a university's effort to achieve more diversity on campus.

Blum has previously tried, and failed, to block a university from using race-conscious admissions in the Supreme Court. But given the new make-up of the court --- former US president Donald Trump appointed three justices, giving the bench a 6--3 conservative majority --- he and SFFA are trying again, and looking to upend the entire precedent. Both Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill use the 'holistic' race-based approach to admissions, which SFFA contests. Grutter v. Bollinger "was wrong the day it was decided" and "has spawned significant negative consequences", states the SFFA's court filing.

Specifically, the group argues that race-conscious admissions at Harvard discriminate against Asian Americans, and at UNC-Chapel Hill, against both white and Asian American applicants, by unfairly favouring some students of colour, including Black and Latinx applicants.

Which US colleges and universities use affirmative action?

In many states, some percentage of public and private universities use affirmative action in admissions. But eight states --- Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington --- currently ban public universities from considering the race of their applicants.

Most US colleges don't have to worry unduly about affirmative action, however, because they admit more than two-thirds of applicants, according to a 2019 study by the Pew Research Center, a think tank based in Washington DC. The debates about affirmative action centre around a small number of 'elite' institutions with low acceptance rates, says Alvin Tillery, Jr, director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Many of these are private universities, including Harvard, that have implemented their own voluntary affirmative-action policies.

Does affirmative action help to increase diversity among students?

The part that affirmative action has played in increasing diversity in higher education became clear after states such as California and Michigan banned race-conscious admissions at public institutions. These actions led to persistent declines in the enrolment of people from under-represented minority groups at the states' flagship public universities, according to a 2020 study1. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the University of Michigan stated that the enrolment of Black undergraduate students dropped from 7% in 2006 to 4% in 2021, even though the proportion of college-age people in Michigan who are Black rose from 16% to 19%. And graduate students were affected, too. For instance, at medical schools in California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Washington, affirmative-action bans led to about a 17% decline in historically under-represented students of colour enroling, according to a 2015 study2.

Blum has previously tried, and failed, to block a university from using race-conscious admissions in the Supreme Court. But given the new make-up of the court --- former US president Donald Trump appointed three justices, giving the bench a 6--3 conservative majority --- he and SFFA are trying again, and looking to upend the entire precedent. Both Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill use the 'holistic' race-based approach to admissions, which SFFA contests. Grutter v. Bollinger "was wrong the day it was decided" and "has spawned significant negative consequences", states the SFFA's court filing.

Specifically, the group argues that race-conscious admissions at Harvard discriminate against Asian Americans, and at UNC-Chapel Hill, against both white and Asian American applicants, by unfairly favouring some students of colour, including Black and Latinx applicants.

Which US colleges and universities use affirmative action?

In many states, some percentage of public and private universities use affirmative action in admissions. But eight states --- Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington --- currently ban public universities from considering the race of their applicants.

Affirmative action isn't perfect, Park says, "but it's an essential tool in order to be able to recruit and enrol a more racially diverse group of students".

Many universities agree. Fifteen institutions --- including Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia --- put forwards an amicus, or 'friend of the court', brief to the Supreme Court in support of affirmative action. The American Council on Education sent a similar brief along with 39 other higher-education associations. They state that if race were to be excluded from admissions decisions, the experiences of Black Americans and other students of colour in the United States would be largely ignored. They also note that higher diversity facilitates varied interactions among students and prepares them for a diverse workforce.

The court does not have to consider the evidence presented in such briefs, but sometimes does.

Will affirmative action survive?

This is one of the biggest cases to come before the heavily conservative court since it overturned decades of precedent by reversing Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to an abortion. Having seen the outcome in that situation, many experts think that affirmative action in university admissions will come to a swift end.

Most US colleges don't have to worry unduly about affirmative action, however, because they admit more than two-thirds of applicants, according to a 2019 study by the Pew Research Center, a think tank based in Washington DC. The debates about affirmative action centre around a small number of 'elite' institutions with low acceptance rates, says Alvin Tillery, Jr, director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Many of these are private universities, including Harvard, that have implemented their own voluntary affirmative-action policies.

Does affirmative action help to increase diversity among students?

The part that affirmative action has played in increasing diversity in higher education became clear after states such as California and Michigan banned race-conscious admissions at public institutions. These actions led to persistent declines in the enrolment of people from under-represented minority groups at the states' flagship public universities, according to a 2020 study1. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the University of Michigan stated that the enrolment of Black undergraduate students dropped from 7% in 2006 to 4% in 2021, even though the proportion of college-age people in Michigan who are Black rose from 16% to 19%. And graduate students were affected, too. For instance, at medical schools in California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Washington, affirmative-action bans led to about a 17% decline in historically under-represented students of colour enroling, according to a 2015 study2.

The right-leaning justices seem willing to overrule established precedent, says Kimberly West-Faulcon, a legal specialist at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California. SFFA and its supporters are counting on that; decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that a holistic approach to admissions that includes race is not unconstitutional. SFFA's supporters, including 81 Republican lawmakers, filed their own amicus brief to the court arguing that race-conscious admissions "are untrue to the Constitution's guarantee of equality under law".

Daniel Ho, a legal specialist and political scientist at Stanford Law School in California, agrees that the court will probably rule in favour of SFFA. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was meant to protect historically marginalized groups, but that conception has been difficult to maintain, he says. Instead, SFFA is using it to protect 'colour blind' admissions.

A decision on the cases is expected by next summer in the United States.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03470-5

If only Reddit would do the same.

Meta used an artificial intelligence algorithm to fire dozens of moderators hired through contract firm Accenture. Writes about it business insider.

According to the report, the contractor told about 60 employees that their Facebook jobs were “soon to be taken away.” The reasons for the cuts were not disclosed, and employees were not given explanations about the changes.

According to the publication, employees were informed of the layoffs during a hastily scheduled video call. During the call, unnamed Accenture representatives told the contractors that they were selected “randomly” using an algorithm.

The laid-off workers were told they could reapply and interview for new positions at the firm.

Facebook declined to comment on the situation, and an Accenture spokesman denied the “layoff.”

The cuts come amid unprecedented hardship for Meta. Formerly Chief Product Officer Chris Cox warned employees about “coming financial challenges” related to privacy policy changes and macroeconomic pressures.

The company also reported a drop in revenue for the first quarter of 2022 for the first time in its history. In particular, the loss of the Meta division with a focus on the metaverse amounted to $ 2.8 billion.

According to some reports, employees of the company concerned a possible reduction in the workforce by 10%, although representatives of the tech giant denied such plans.

Recall that in May the White House warned about the threats of using AI tools in recruiting.

In November 2021, the New York City Council banned the use of artificial intelligence hiring systems that did not pass a discrimination test.

In September, California authorities settled labor productivity algorithms.

vs 1v1, who would win?

BREAKING: Judge Allows Twitter To Expedite Lawsuit Against Musk $TSLA $TWTR

— Benzinga (@Benzinga) July 19, 2022

A whole new world of AI awaits

Imagine being 5 years old, dreaming of new adventures for Pikachu and Aladdin, and turning those tales into a cartoon right in front of your eyes... (Perhaps even with you as the main character!) What kinds of new storybook experiences could GPT-3 and DALL-E enable?

My own kindergartener, Noah, loves new bedtime stories, so let's find out.

GPT-3 Story Generation

First, I asked Noah what story he wanted. In his slightly paraphrased words: "I want a story about Ash and Pikachu commanding an army of Pokemon. They're attacking Team Rocket and enemy Pokemon from the land and ocean."

I then asked GPT-3 to flesh out the story:

GPT-3 fleshes out a story about Ash and Pikachu vs. Team Rocket

It was a dark and stormy night, and Ash and Pikachu were leading their army of Pokemon into battle against Team Rocket and their enemy Pokemon. From the land came the sound of thundering footsteps and from the sea came the sound of crashing waves. The two sides met in the middle of the battlefield, and the battle began.

Pikachu and his army of electric-type Pokemon struck first, blasting the enemy with powerful thunderbolts. Team Rocket's Pokemon were no match for the might of Pikachu and his friends, and they soon began to retreat.

But the enemy Pokemon from the sea were not so easily defeated. They launched a counterattack with water-type moves, drenching Ash and Pikachu's army.

But Ash and Pikachu would not give up. They rallied their troops and fought back with everything they had. In the end, they emerged victorious, and the enemy was defeated.

Roald Dahl, watch out.

DALL-E Illustrations

Next, DALL-E generated visuals for the story. Inputting the raw sentences themselves didn't work so well, so I tweaked them to improve the illustrations.

SHOW MORE

I’am familiar with a lot of concepts and have done a small amount of intro level shit, but how would I go about actually learning applicable/hobby level coding without taking classes?

Edit: I have decided to learn assembly

Tbh, good riddance and almost nothing of value has been lost.

Orange site discussion

>born one generation before gene edited babies

>if I was born in 2100 I'd be 8 feet tall and have a 15 inch peepee

>mfw only 6 foot with 7.5 inch peepee

[Orange site discusses]

Deterrence Dispensed, the controversial 3D-printed weapons syndicate (co-founded by JStark), has recently released a new project.

This is a 66mm recoilless launcher with shoulder rest attachments, allowing it to convert to a mortar on the go. pic.twitter.com/esdUxNJD7g

— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) March 23, 2022

“Our societies have not previously tolerated spaces that are beyond the reach of law enforcement [mass surveillance]” seems like a more complete statement. But can you imagine the Orwellian dystopia we’d live in if the statement was true?

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) April 21, 2024

These all seems good right? well surprise, this startup did a little Oopsie.

This feels like a scam

like wtf? Look at their website....can't they use Devin to make a better one??? lol

https://www.cognition-labs.com/

Also if you go to the "preview" url it looks NOTHING like the video

https://preview.devin.ai/

(you could upload unlimited files before without logging in, they did a hotfix, se further down)

EDIT:

Are they running https://preview.devin.ai/ in dev mode? Not a react dev myself but i can see all their react components in the chrome debugger...

EDIT

Why are they using https://clerk.com/user-authentication to handle logins? If Devin is as amazing as they say im pretty sure building a simple login functionality should be trivial for it....

Heck it should even salt and hash the passwords right?

EDIT

Ok maybe im reaching for straws here but if you inspect the DOM in the react debugger they have a prop called "afterSignInUrl", take one guess what the value of that prop is?

""

EDIT

Ok i need to stop but it's just fascinating

They actually dont do ANYTHING themselfs

Analytics: Hotjar

Website: NextJS

Login: Clerk

Jobs: Ashby

Waitlist: Google docs (ROFL)

Learn more about their funding: A link to twitter

Their so called "Blog" isnt even an actual blog, it's literally a static page with hardcoded dates and entries....

Who are these people?

EDIT

Aaaaaand i went to Linkedin and checked...

Yeaaaa i'm getting heavy vibes of:

"We were laid off and now we try to scam some investors for money while we think of a better plan"

FINAL UPDATE (im tired)

So they "fixed" the upload now. If you try to upload a file, it says {"detail":"Not logged in"}

Ok, so no id on the error, no timestamp, no metadata whatsoever. How are users supposed to send in an error report on this? How are you logging this?

And also...if you know if you aren't logged in WHY DON'T YOU JUST DISABLE THE UPLOAD BUTTON. You cant upload file, image or key without being logged in. This is driving me insane.

Some people have said in the comments that this is supposed to be the best 0.00001% developers in the world. And maybe i'm too stupid but this makes no sense me.

Another thing that's interesting is that there is no error on the GUI side. The spinner just keeps spinning meaning they don't have any form of error handling...nothing not even a small toast or notification or anything. No generic or specific error

Isnt this supposed to be in beta? Isn't there people using this? So if a user uploads a file, key whatever and something goes wrong....just...nothing?

I'm sorry but this just smells...bad

Codecels help me. I want to make Jessie/pokemon marseys/gifs. How do I do this?

List of my friend pokemon:

• meowth

• rotom phone -- MISSING!

List of my owned pokemons:

1. arbok

2.

3. shellder -- MISSING!

4. wobbuffet -- MISSING!

5. seviper

6. dustox -- MISSING!

7. yanmega -- MISSING!

8. woobat -- MISSING!

9. frillish -- MISSING!

10. gourgeist -- MISSING!

11. mawile

12. mimikyu

As you can see, only 6/14 of my pokemons are here!

Pls help me fix this