If we are, we're emergent behavior, not the topic of study.

Frankly, simulation theory feels a lot like other previous "humans are super special!" ontologies. We're not, we're just organic bags of complex chemical processes like every other lifeform on Earth, with all the cool potential and shitty vulnerabilities that such a thing entails. I've yet to see anything which truly sets us apart as a species beyond the need to ascribe a meaning to our mortality.

Also, phys.org is (yet again) trash and have just reposted this piece as "news" from a book advertisement by the author on theconversation.com but altered the title in a small but meaningful way that conceals the disclosure

Phys.org title:

Do we live in a computer simulation like in The Matrix? Proposed new law of physics backs up the idea

Original title:

Do we live in a computer simulation like in The Matrix? My proposed new law of physics backs up the idea

This is part of due process in doing something about it. Unfortunately it's a lot faster to commit crimes and get "creative" with moving money in not-quite-crimes-but-still-bullshit than it is to weigh up their legality and enforce appropriate penalties.

When a legal system relies heavily on precedent as guidance and technicalities can destroy a decision, and fixing that might take decades and destroy lives, you have to make sure it's good. Especially when this many people are watching.

Unfortunately you're very right that the slow speeds to ensure precision are easily and visibly exploited by scumlickers like Jones.

If this surprises people, they're going to flip when they find that most research is privately funded by people with a vested interest. This is why public science funding is so important, it provides research with an alternate motive. Somewhere in the middle of all the ulterior research motives, public and private, you can find something closer to the truth.

I have no idea if this is the same as the one at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra but for anyone else who was curious about the specs on this beast:

• HEIGHT: 3.6 m (11.10 ft.)
• LENGTH OF THE SOUNDBOARD (uppermost board): 2.06 m (6.76 ft.)
• WIDTH OF THE SOUNDBOARD: 1.11 m (3.64 ft.)
• LENGTH OF STRINGS: 2.18 m (6.56 ft.)
• NUMBER OF STRINGS 3: (A-E-B)
• DIAMETER OF STRINGS: 5/16 in. (7.94 mm). 1/4 in. (6.35 mm) et 3/16 in. (4.76 mm)
• WEIGHT: 131,54 kg (290 lbs.)
• NUMBER OF PARTS: There are hundreds of parts, of which 237 make up the complex mechanism of this precision instrument.
• SPECIAL FEATURES: The octobass is the lowest-pitched and largest-sized instrument of the entire string family. The performer must climb up on a small stool in order to access the neck of the instrument, and it is only by means of levers and pedals - not with the hands that the strings can be reached and sounded. The octobass bow is longer and heavier than the bow of an ordinary string bass.

Apparently it can do as low as 25Hz. That would be badass to experience in person.

Always has been. Here's his drunk on-stage rant from 1976 in Birmingham.

** Content warning: Racism and racist slurs. **

"Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. I don't want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should vote for Enoch Powell. Enoch's our man. I think Enoch's right, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism. It's much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans don't belong here, we don't want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don't want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck's sake? Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!" - Eric Clapton

Enoch Powell was a conservative party politician running for election, incidentally.

Clapton has always been truly awful and this is completely in character for him.

Grifters, con-artists and fascists all use the truth to sell a lie. The truth is that we have been steadily raised on a diet of mass produced garbage, optimised purely for profit while disregarding all public and environmental welfare in its construction and delivery. The lie is that the grifters, con-artists and fascists are not just doing the exact same thing to the extreme.

They offer what they call good, wholesome and honest solutions to contrast with the big globalist elitist fat-cats selling expensive unnatural poisons. But natural or synthetic, poisons can kill you the same type of dead.

Napoleon's invasion of Russia. It led what might be the first great infographic ever though. Charles Minard’s Infographic of Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia from 1869 (Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée française dans la campagne de Russie en 1812-1813)

Tan colour line from left to right is the trip from France to Moscow, 1mm line weight = 6000 soldiers, black colour line from right to left is the trip back to France. The line slowly thins and diverges like a tree branch until 422k soldiers are whittled down to 10k returning. Not quite the outcome Napoleon had intended.

I really dislike the phrase "failure to launch". They're not failures, they're not defective machines. They're people who, at least in part, are choosing not to have sex or be in a relationship. And if they aren't doing it by choice, then it most definitely isn't their responsibility for not "launching" into the roles they are expected to conform to.

Strange but true: Being in a romantic relationship is not a requirement to be a valid or great human being.

While I wish this research well, very well in fact...

In 8 of 16 patients studied, the vaccines activated T cells that recognize the patient’s own pancreatic cancers. These patients also showed delayed recurrence of their pancreatic cancers, suggesting the T cells activated by the vaccines may be having the desired effect to keep pancreatic cancers in check.

This is a far cry from "stops pancreatic cancer". An article about research science by the research scientist leading it is a call for funding. It is very probably a good thing to fund. But misleading headlines set society up for disappointment when the science doesn't deliver on the headline claims. This weakens public trust in science. A huge part of this problem is the need for science to beg for grants and funding in the first place.

This but the pre-2005 version of the logo was also my first thought.

Content warning: I deliberately avoid providing much more detail than "it was clearly CSAM" but I do mention the overall tweet contents and pretext.

I remember this from when it happened and unfortunately did see the text portion and thumbnail from the original tweet.

He did it under the pretext of reporting on the arrest of a person involved in the video and large-scale CSAM production. It started as a standard news-report-style where they list the name, age and arrest details of someone taken into custody. Initially it looked like the normal alt-right tweet about "look at how paedophilia is rampant and the world is sinful!".

The guy describes himself as "chief trumpster" and a "breaker of narratives" and journalist. He claimed the details of the CSAM were provided by the Dutch police. He then described the title and detailed events of a CSAM video in the tweet. Unfortunately for me, the detailed events were below the tweet fold, so I had no idea it was going there until I expanded it.

The tweet image attachment or link unfurl thumb had a frame from the video itself. It was an otherwise-SFW image the adult abuser who was being talked about. Unfortunately I didn't realise until after I had expanded the tweet text contents what the thumbnail was. I actually thought it was an opengraph error at first.

Even in the context of "reporting shocking content" the tweet was way over the line and went from 0 to 100 in a few words. I did not need the info on the CSAM, nobody except the police and courts does. The video title alone was over the line.

Musk phrasing this as another "I was told" decision is just him knowingly deferring responsibility.

I no longer describe anything as 'lame' or 'retarded' or 'spaz' or their variants. It makes me sad ableism is so ingrained in even the most inclusive spaces even though the same argument has removed the use of 'gay' for the same reasons.

I also avoid dark or dry humour unless I'm confident the people I am talking to know it's absurdist and not a serious opinion. I don't always succeed at this.