Hell yeah, proud of you! 
AernaLingus
joined 3 years ago
I've been trying to be more resilient too. Doin' OK-ish.
Same here—glad you're hanging in there. I feel like I've made slow and steady progress on this front over the last year or so, and a big part of that has been having more of a consistent routine. That way, even if I get knocked off course a bit, the routine keeps me anchored and prevents me from spiraling downward. I actually fell out of it for a few months due to a more major event, but I've finally slotted back into it these past few weeks and I can really feel the difference.
Damn, that Plutonomy report is some top-tier ghoul shit. Haven't finished reading it yet, but this bit on page 22 stuck out to me (emphasis mine)
Organized societies have two ways of expropriating wealth — through the revocation of property rights or through the tax system.
[...]
There is a third way to change things though not necessarily by expropriation, and that is to slow down the rate of wealth creation or accumulation by the rich — generally through a reduction in the profit share of GDP. This could occur through a change in rules that affect the balance of power between labor and capital. Classic examples of this tend to fall under one of two buckets — the regulation of the domestic labor markets through minimum wages, regulating the number of hours worked, deciding who can and cannot work etc. or by dictating where goods and services can be imported from (protectionism).
deciding who can and cannot work
Child labor. They're talking about child labor laws. 
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Piplup_(Phantasmal_Flames_27)#Gallery
This Full Art illustration rare features artwork by Jiro Sasumo, winner of the 2nd Pokémon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix (you can read an interview with them (which shows of their contest-winning artwork plus a few other pieces) as well as check out their Pixiv and Twitter.
In the aforementioned interview, Sasumo says
My goal is to draw illustrations that look like portrayals of a world where Pokémon really exist. I believe that Pokémon fans enjoy imagining how Pokémon would go about their lives if they existed in our world, and I’d be happy if my illustrations could help them imagine this scenario.
That sentiment really comes through in this illustration. And also, take note of the flavor text
A poor walker, it often falls down. However, its strong pride makes it puff up its chest without a care.
Ngl I did have a bit of a fall today, but I'm gonna try to be like Piplup and keep moving forward!
no bucking way 
One of my favourite games ever tbh.
Same here! I played it so much back in the day that I got my GBC confiscated, something not even Pokémon Blue was able to accomplish. Still need to finish the English translation of the Japan-only sequel. And relevant to this post, there's even a romhack for Neo that I wanna tackle next! Games aside, I still listen to the music regularly, and I've even been transcribing and analyzing some of the pieces. Ichiro Shimakura pulled some absolute wizardry on that soundtrack. If anyone wants to give them a listen, here's the first and here's the second; what's neat about that site is that, by clicking the "Settings" tab you can toggle individual voices (which really demonstrates the trickery Shimakura employed to get such a big sound with only three melodic voices) as well as tweak the stereo width to your liking.
I've only gotten back into playing offline tcg with my niece
Awww, that's lovely!
Tap left for sleep, right for paralyse, upside down for confusion. Poison and burned have status tokens
Thanks for hunting down the info—a mix of tokens and card rotation, then! Well, should I ever find myself in an impromptu face-to-face game of Pokémon TCG, I"ll know what to do.
Hey, put some respect on Diglett's name!
...but yeah, there does not seem to have been any rhyme or reason to the music choices—seems like they just had a list of popular classical musical selections and assigned them at random. I bet they both used The Blue Danube and gave it to a non-Water Pokémon.
why is this in badposting, it's just the truth
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Natu_(McDonald_Pack_15)
Oh boy, the e-Reader cards! I was always curious about those as a kid but I never had an e-Reader to try them myself. It's a gimmick, sure, but I bet I would have been absolutely enthralled with it if I'd had one.
If anyone's wondering what's in the e-Reader data for this card, the short strip gives you an interface that shows the Crystal Pokédex entry + card info, including a dictionary which defines any game-specific jargon:
Screenshots
Screenshots transcript
There are eleven screenshots, all showing the software that results from scanning the e-Reader short code om the promotional McDonald's Natu card. The text is primarily in Japanese.
The interface (common to all screenshots) has a gold border with a logo that reads "e-viewer" in the upper left-hand corner. On the bottom, the current screen's name is show in the center, with left and right arrows in the corresponding corners showing what screens the player can navigate to. These are all written in English.
The first screenshot (named simply "pokémon") shows the Pokédex information from Pokémon Crystal alongside a sprite of Natu, which seems to be based on its official Ken Sugimori watercolor illustration rather than a sprite taken from any of the games. It also indicates that we can see the "Evolution Info" screen by pressing A:
ネイティ
NO. 177
ことりポケモン
体調. 0.2 m
体重. 2.0 kg
きように きのみきを かけのぼる。
えださきに できた あたらしい
きのめを このんで ついばむ。
The second screenshot shows the Evolution Info screen, using the same sprite for Natu but a flat and simple three-color sprite for Xatu (called ネイティオ in Japanese). The interface also indicates that the player may return to the "Pokémon Info" screen by pressing B.
The third and fourth screenshots show a textual description of the actual Pokémon card, which is a bit wordier than the card, although it contains the same information. The fourth screenshot is simply the same screen scrolled down to reveal the rest of the text. Keywords are written in red text (below indicated by bolding). The currently selected dictionary entry further has a flashing underline, and the selection can be changed by pressing the L and R buttons (although this is not indicated in the interface):
ネイティ
HP. 40
ID. M-10-#
(Psychic energy icon)
◆「ウイングカッター」は、コイントスが必要だけど、「おもて」ならエネルギー１個で２０ダメージも与えるワザだよ。 ◆「にらんでつつく」は、相手に１０ダメージを与えて、コイントスが「おもて」ならマヒにするワザだよ。
The fifth through tenth screenshots show the dictionary entries (which, on this particular card, are the Japanese TCG's terms for "Coin Toss," "Energy," "Move," and "Paralysis"), each of which indicate that the player can return to the "Card Info" screen by pressing the B button. There are more screenshots than entries because the last two entries required scrolling to reveal all text:
コイントス
コインを投げて、「おもて」か「うら」かで判定すること。
エネルギー
ポケモンが、ワザを使うときや、「にげる」ときになどに必要とするもの。
基本的には「エネルギーカード」によって、ポケモンに与えられます。
ワザ
ポケモンが持っている能力の１つ。
自分の番に一回だけ使うことができ、使ったら、自分の番が終わります。
ワザを使うためには、そのワザに必要なぶん以上のエネルギーが、そのポケモンについていなければいけません。
ワザをを使っても、特に説明されていなければ、エネルギーカードはそのポケモンにつけたままにしておきます。
マヒ
特殊状態の１つで、ポケモンが「マヒ」している状態のこと。
「マヒ」状態のポケモンは、そのめじるしとして、カードを横にします。
「マヒ」状態のポケモンは、ワザを使うことも「にげる」こともできません。
自分の番を一回「マヒ」状態ですごしたポケモンは、その番の後のポケモンチェックで「マヒ」から回復します。
また、ベンチにもどったポケモンは、「マヒ」状態から回復します。
The eleventh and final screenshot shows the "data" screen, which simply displays a message indicating that the long code can be used for a Construction e-Reader game (i.e. a game that can be played solely with e-Reader cards and not requiring a GBA game cartridge); the equivalent English message is "This side Dot Code contains data for construction function blocks.":
このカードのサイドコードはｅゲームＺＥＲＯのファンクションブロックです
and the long strip contains data for Construction: Melody Box (just plays a short one-voice melody).
Ngl, I actually learned something about the TCG game when reading and transcribing those Japanese dictionary entries. I only ever properly played the card game on the Game Boy (Color) game Pokémon Trading Card Game (which absolutely SLAPS across gameplay, graphics, and especially music, btw), and in that game status effects are indicated by a little icon underneath the card art. But apparently, in the physical card game you're supposed to tap your card to indicate paralysis. Are there different ways you're supposed to indicate the other status effects, or does tapping cover everything?
Anyway, on the subject of the e-Reader, here's a few interesting technical videos on e-Reader cards in the original Animal Crossing from Hunter R.:
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Poliwag_(Neo_Discovery_62)
I think I might actually own this one since I collected from Base Set through at least the first set or two of Neo (this is from set two of four). Cute art!
You can remove me from the taglist, since (as I think I mentioned to you) I had long lapsed, but I just started up with the 2026 group and I'm already further than I made it last year (just finished chapter two)! I'm really determined to see this through. But I think it was important to have this weekly reminder throughout the past year to remind me that this was something I really wanted to tackle in the next year, and your reading list also served as a bit of an on-ramp to get me in the habit of regular reading and introducing me to some of the topics I'll be engaging with.
I'm hoping I'll have the time and mental bandwidth to work through the rest of the readings in parallel, since there's some other topics I want to explore, but we'll see. Either way, thank you so much for your efforts! 
Christmas has come early with a new Dolphin Progress Report! There's some juicy technical details, so I definitely recommend that folks read the full report if that sounds interesting, but here's the high-level summary of user-facing impacts (click the ¶ symbol to the right of each heading to jump to the relevant section in the progress report):
- RetroAchievements are now available on Android ¶
- Not my thing (I have a bad enough completionist streak without achievements), but welcome news for the achievement hunters on-the-go—here's a list of supported games.
- 2509-493 - Add Rush Frame Presentation and Smooth Frame Presentation Options by Billiard ¶
- Really neat new options that allow users to improve latency and frame pacing, both of which can actually be better than a console + CRT in certain games! The effectiveness and compatibility will vary by game (for instance, they show why you definitely don't want to enable Immediately Present XFB for Rogue Squadron II), so you'll want to test these features on a per-game basis. See the post for more guidance.
- 2509-74 - GameCube - Add SDL Stock Profile by Samb ¶
- No fuss default profile included so you won't be forced to manually configure your SDL controllers for GameCube if you don't want to (but make sure you calibrate your joysticks!). See report for step-by-step instructions.
- 2509-237 and 2509-339 - Add Option to Reset Settings Back to Default by JoshuaVandaele and Simonx22 ¶
- Not much to say about it, but with how byzantine Dolphin's settings can be this was both non-trivial to implement and I'm sure very welcome for the people who tinker with their Dolphin settings and get themselves into trouble.
- 2509-217 - GamePatch: Modify Certain Games to Behave Better in Dolphin by SuperSamus with additional contributors ¶
- Interesting technical details for this one that involve the JIT and analog TV signals, but the bottom line is: Dolphin will apply game patches that will massively improve performance (as in potentially 2-3x better) in
- 2509-242 - BBA: IPC for BBA Between Multiple Instances of Dolphin on the Same Machine by cristian64 ¶
- Neat, but niche enough that rather than try to explain, I'll just copy-paste the explanation:
Broadband Adapter (IPC): HLE solution that allows Dolphin instances on the same machine to share memory and communicate directly without the need for a host network.
BBA-IPC allows for easy testing of BBA features on a single PC, and can also be used in conjunction with game streaming services like Parsec to play BBA titles over the internet without needing to meet the strict latency requirements of emulating the BBA over the internet.
- 509-250 - IP/Top: Make InetAToN async by sepalani ¶
- This change will improve online Wii play for those on high-latency connections (e.g. mobile data) by making DNS lookups non-blocking
- 2509-481 - SDIO: Fix CSD/CID emulation by Naim2000 ¶
- Fixes an inaccuracy in Wii SD card emulation that will allow for use of virtual SD cards up to the 32GB limit present on original hardware (the bug caused errors when the data exceeded 10.7GiB). This is especially useful for those using games with lots of DLC (Rock Band, Just Dance) or large homebrew software (_Super Smash REX).
- 2509-542 - USB: Emulated Support for Logitech Microphone for Wii by Biendeo ¶
- This Wii peripheral used in roughly 100 games (think Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and various karaoke games) can now be emulated with any standard PC microphone!
- 2509-406 - On-Screen Display: Add New Default Font by TryTwo ¶
- The default OSD font is now a vector font rather than the old raster (pixel-based) font, so it should be clear and easy-to-read at any scale! You can also commit font crimes by supplying your own font:
- The default OSD font is now a vector font rather than the old raster (pixel-based) font, so it should be clear and easy-to-read at any scale! You can also commit font crimes by supplying your own font:
- 2509-554 - AX-HLE: Fix Low Pass Filter Edge Case by flacs ¶
- I love stuff like this: coding error in a game few people care about (or even remember) exposes flaw in the current emulation logic, leading to improved accuracy. The sloppy coders of today plant seeds for the emulation developers of tomorrow!
10
Can anyone recommend a workflow/tool(s) for syncing a plaintext diarized transcript to audio to obtain high-quality subtitles?
(hexbear.net)
The MLP wiki has high quality diarized transcripts that look like this:
Pinkie Pie: I'm awake! I'm awake! What time is it?! Did we sleep through the test?! [snores]
[beeping stops]
Rarity: No, but school starts in thirty minutes!
Sunset Shimmer: [sighs] How's everybody feeling about our test?
Fluttershy: Even after our all-night study session, I still don't know the difference between vaporization and sublimation.
Ideally, I'd like to have a tool that I can feed this to which will spit out some synced subs. The exact per-character diarization isn't actually important, since I'll certainly strip out the character names (and probably the [SDH things]) to avoid problems with alignment and they won't be in the final subtitles; rather, I want to make sure that the boundaries between speaker utterances are respected.
MFA seems like it could work, but I'm unsure of how best to preprocess the transcript/audio to get good results. I tried aligning with and without the built-in segment command as well as bumping the beam and beam-retry values with less-than-stellar results.
I'm also aware of some commercial services that offer this functionality (Descript and YouTube), but I'm looking for a solution I can run locally.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated! 
Sort of a separate question, but is there a tool that will allow for precise line-splitting when using word-timestamped transcripts (e.g. the JSON output of Whisper)? It seems like it should be fairly straightforward, but it doesn't seem like SubtitleEdit can do it and I had trouble finding a tool that can handle it. Would be a really nice feature, since splitting lines is probably the most tedious task when dealing with automatic transcripts.
75
Wastewater-derived estimates suggest that 74 million people in the U.S. got infected during the [2025] summer [COVID] wave.
(hexbear.net)
https://xcancel.com/michael_hoerger/status/1993183181932310977
Wastewater-derived estimates suggest that 74 million people in the U.S. got infected during the summer wave.
That's 21.6% of the population, about 1 in 5 people. These infections are anticipated to translate into 3.7-14.7 million long-term conditions. #LongCOVID
Text description of post image
Graph titled "SARS-CoV-2 New Daily Infections, Wastewater-Derived Estimates (U.S.)" which has days on the X-axis (with ticks for the first of each month for July through November 2025) and infections on the Y-axis. The graph highlights a peak of 1.4 million infections/day in early September. Additionally, it shows that 60 million infections occurred in the two-month span from early August to early October, and 75 million infections occurred in the three-month span from mid-July to mid-October. The graph is attributed to Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA (@michael_hoerger
) and links to pmc19.com/data
view more: next ›
RSS feeds are definitely the way to go. And for YouTube, I never stopped using the subscription feed. I get exactly the videos I ask for from the creators I follow—nothing more, nothing less.