ToaKraka
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User ID: 108
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13hr ago
Astral Codex Ten's latest Bay Area House Party comedy article may be of interest.
Something clicks. “Tran, are you talking like an AI?”
“You’re absolutely right,” says Tran. “I was tired of being socially anxious and tripping over my own tongue. I started out by reading Dale Carnegie, but taking his advice made me sound like a bad salesman—and that underscores how much norms have changed since the 1930s. The pivot was realizing that we already know what the best-liked speaking style is. AI companies ask human raters to judge their models’ outputs in RHLF, and the highest-rated style survives as the well-known ‘voice’ of the AIs. That’s not an an accident—it’s a testament to people genuinely preferring it. The average member of the population thinks it sounds polished, thoughtful, and sophisticated. And here’s the part most people find striking—in only one month, I’ve gone from being a friendless wallflower to having dates almost every night. That’s something that human-style supremacists genuinely need to sit with.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought Cluely was back in business or something.”
“You’ve put your finger on the natural misconception that people have when first encountering this area,” said Tran. “But talking like an AI isn’t the domain of one company. It’s a vibrant treasure trove of neologisms available to anybody. Would you like to hear more about how copying AI tics helps me keep conversations going?”
“Uh, sure—wait! No!” You break off and turn around as fast as you can.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13hr ago
According to Gallup, only 20 percent of USAians view lawyers as having above-average "honesty and ethical standards", vs. 7 percent for members of Congress, 37 percent for police officers, and 57 percent for doctors. And, according to Ipsos, only 31 percent of people globally view lawyers in their respective countries as "trustworthy", vs. 15 percent for politicians, 38 percent for police officers, and 58 percent for doctors. But are perceived "honesty and ethical standards" and "trustworthiness" the same thing as "cultural respect"? I feel doubtful. IMO, cultural respect is more like "are lawyers cool?" than "are lawyers trustworthy?".
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
14hr ago
I can't say I remember what exactly happened (did our stewards ever outright list what the Reddit overlords demanded of them in the end?), but I was under the impression that it was about much more than that, and there were specific demands from admins to ban particular opinions (content, not tone).
According to others (1 2 3), the specific straw that broke the camel's back was the admins' failure to understand the use–mention distinction: somebody was banned by the admins for explaining the difference between «guillemets» and ((("echo" triple parentheses))).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
19hr ago
Just curious, where did you grow up?
I am a nigger of Caribbean descent (so technically not in the narrowest definition of "American descendants of slaves") who has lived in New J*rsey all his life (plus college in western Pennsylvania).
Not being able to tell the difference between South American mestizos and Europeans (even heavily tanned Europeans) is just wild to me. Like, bordering on willfully obtuse.
Look at prominent Bolivian Evo Morales as one example. Is he darker than a default European? Yes, obviously. But, other than that moderately darker skin, does he really look that different from, say, Jay Leno? IMO, no. In comparison, East Asians have wildly different eyes, South Asians have skin dark enough that no white could ever tan to match them, and blacks have both super-dark skin and wildly different hair.
Again, this is all my personal opinion. But to me indigenous Americans seem very similar to whites.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I was just making a half-joking reference to the US federal government's recent race/ethnicity reshuffling.
I personally can't see much difference between indigenous Americans and heavily tanned Europeans, so all Hispanics look basically white to me. But that obviously is my problem, not Primaprimaprima's.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
2d ago
She had great potential, seeing how she devoted herself so much to worldbuilding before there was even a word for it, but tragically she tossed it all away in favour of misanthropic MLP fics. And let's not forget her lack of self-awareness and ignorance of internet culture, like the boomer she is. I find it befuddling that someone of her intelligence would be surprised by the abundance of man-children on a website dedicated to fanfictions of a TV show intended for little girls.
The sheer amount of cool stuff she left behind her over the decades, never to be seen, is staggering. As one who enjoys trawling through the buried dreams of internet 1.0, made by imaginative young people who've long since abandoned their email addresses and associated projects, I can only feel the deepest melancholy when scrolling through her lore, knowing that JDR, who actively lurks on Deviantart, will never return to what she's best at again. There are times when I wish I could meet her in person and come to a compromise; any compromise, that might lead to her setting books and sundry creations seeing the light of day, and maybe even get published, like some kind of late 20th-century Silmarillion. To think that almost twenty years ago she had a respectable number of fans - now I can find nowhere discussing her works, not even on 4chan or reddit. The fact that most of their forums are lost to the mists of time exacerbates this fact.
She's not just the prototype insane troon. She's the prototype furry, the prototype weeaboo, the prototype otherkin. The prototype shitlord, the prototype SJW and obsessive worldbuilder as codified by reddit.
The prototype lolcow - like Chris-Chan, if he had savant-level intelligence and an obsession with more sophisticated media.
The wordsmithery of this [2006 autobiographical comic depicting Chatoyance in 1981 as about to commit suicide while crossdressing, but then praying to the Moon and receiving a comforting vision] is actually very good. Too bad the actual content of the writing is fucking insane. JDR could have been a great writer if he wasn't so batshit.
That's part of why I still can't quit JDR after all these years, despite multiple generations of more colorful troons having come after. Lolcows with real talents and abilities who put those skills to retarded ends are fascinating. I've posted before from this page talking about how a Muse Goddess dictated the story of Unicorn Jelly to JDR, but it also goes into the extremely effortful process of mouse-drawing a comic in an ancient DOS paint program. It's tempting to imagine a JDR who isn't a nasty self-absorbed lunatic who could have made comics or written stories that found wider appeal, but one has to wonder if that talent and drive would exist at all without the spite and ego driving JDR through the tedium of creation.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
2d ago
^(1)
This website's implementation of Markdown does not include superscript. You have to manually type the HTML, < sup>1< /sup>.
PDF of the 10 proof batch, page 78
You can link to a specific page of a PDF by adding "#page=78".
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
Your link is broken because you forgot to include the "https://" part.
Also, here's some custom CSS (usable in a browser extension like Stylus) that makes reading the infuriating "glowfic" format tolerable.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
If LLMs cost 20 $/mo for "low-grade entertainment", they're in the same league as Netflix (without advertisements, 20 $/mo) and YouTube (without advertisements, 16 $/mo paid monthly or 13 $/mo paid annually). It's my understanding that lots of people buy temporary subscriptions to streaming services, in order to test them out or to watch a specific platform-exclusive show.
I think this obviously refers to intentional stretching. And, even if it includes inadvertent stretching (other articles that I read mentioned bicycle riding as an activity in which large labia interfere), I think that sex does not stretch labia in that way. (But I'm a virgin, so what do I know? Maybe pulling labia is a common method of foreplay.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
North Carolina allows for civil fraud. I tried to find the exact statute
The free table of contents for this book from the North Carolina Bar Association lists "constructive fraud" as a civil "cause of action" (basis for lawsuit). This lawyer webpage indicates that constructive fraud is different from actual fraud. The idea of a civil action is laid out in NC General Statutes ch. 1 § 1-2—but I can't actually find the list of civil causes of action anywhere, though I would expect it to be in chapter 1 or in chapter 1A.
This page has the standard jury instruction for constructive fraud (§ 800.06) under torts (part IV), so I guess it's nonstatutory common law.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
I would like to suggest that you add a few section headings and/or horizontal rules. (You did use one ersatz horizontal rule, but your autocorrect turned your series of hyphens into a series of em dashes, which Markdown does not interpret as forming an actual horizontal rule.)
Okay, I'll admit that I haven't previously researched this topic. A search for "labia hypertrophy site:.edu" on my phone returns (via this faculty page) this meta-analysis of labiaplasty procedures. In passing it mentions (with several citations omitted):
Labial hypertrophy is most commonly congenital in origin. However, there are a number of potential acquired causes, such as exogenous androgenic hormones in infancy, sensitivity to topical estrogen, stretching or weight attachment of the labia, dermatitis secondary to urinary incontinence, vulvar lymphedema, and myelodysplastic diseases.
(Whoops, now that I'm back on my computer I can't access the article's full text. Maybe I was getting a free preview somehow on my phone. But that was the only relevant quote in it, IIRC.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Britain's housing market is hugely dysfunctional because houses are assets first and shelter second
I thought it was because (1) by-right zoning doesn't exist, so instead literally every single attempt to build housing has to run the gauntlet of getting permission from the govt., and (2) urban growth boundaries stymie building near large cities.
Much of southern Italy was ruled by Arabs for an extended period of time, so southern Italians sometimes are not considered white. (See also Spain and Greece.) Savoy is in northern Italy, but the sentiment sometimes is extended to cover all of Italy, especially in jokes.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Most 2D pornography is drawn with small labia. It is a common sentiment that large labia are considered ugly. I think it is also a commonly-believed urban myth that promiscuity causes large labia (along with a loose vagina).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
roastie
…isn't that a small potato?
Large labia → [roast] beef curtains → roastie (all derogatory)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5d ago
The real losers in this story are the kids: assuming Becky has full custody I’d award her the full settlement for that alone, laws be damned, because (excluding something the defense should’ve mentioned) they deserve the money more than Chad
Wouldn't she be able to get that money anyway in a separate child-support proceeding? If so, there's no need to take that into account here.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5d ago
We recently had a OP on jury trials in the American justice system.
I assume you're referring to this comment.
See also Ozy's article from a year ago, discussed to a small extent here.
I was also impressed by the professionalism of the jury. My fellow jury members were thoughtful, intelligent, morally serious people who were conscious of their responsibility as jurors.⁎ Even given how frustrating the experience was, I was impressed by their rationality, how closely they stuck to the evidence, and their determination to follow the norms of good discourse. Sometimes I see people say online “you elites in your epistemic bubbles have no idea how stupid normal people are”. But, judging from my jury-trial experience, normal people are actually pretty smart! At least in Alameda County.
⁎With one exception, whom I haven’t talked about because I don’t like saying mean things about private figures on a blog this big.
Yet the jurors in this case seem to have delivered unanimous convictions on evidence that fell far short of "beyond a reasonable doubt", even with the prior-bad-acts evidence.
But of course that was a criminal trial for murder, not a civil trial for breach of contract.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5d ago
Despite what the game is showing me on the screen, the "board" is not reality.
Then why is so much computing power wasted on showing a fancy but worthless simulation of reality on the screen? Compare the original X-Com (as well as Phoenix Point), where the probability of hitting actually is based on the 3D models.
Item 1 of 4
A person is observed wheeling himself along a road in a manual wheelchair away from the scene of a single-vehicle car crash. He is drunk, and refuses to submit to a blood-alcohol test when a police officer accosts him.
Whoops! Overwhelming evidence indicates that the person was the driver of the car. But there is no indication of when the crash occurred, so the officer had no grounds to suspect that the person was drunk when he crashed the car (as opposed to crashing the car and then getting drunk off the half-empty bottle of liquor that was found in the car), and therefore no grounds to demand a blood-alcohol test in the first place. No problem! The prosecutor argues that the officer had grounds to suspect the person of driving the manual wheelchair drunk, and on that basis charges the person with refusing a blood-alcohol test. On that basis, he is found guilty, and his driver's license is suspended for 18 months.
The appeals panel reverses. It is illegal to refuse a blood-alcohol test if the officer has grounds to believe that you have driven a "vehicle" while drunk, where "vehicle" is defined to exclude both "self-propelled wheelchairs" and "electrical mobility devices". The prosecutor interpreted "self-propelled wheelchair" to mean propelled by the wheelchair, so that a manual, human-powered wheelchair is not self-propelled, and the trial judge accepted this interpretation. But this interpretation would lead to the absurd result of making the blood-alcohol test law applicable to a driver of a manual wheelchair but not to the driver of a more powerful electric wheelchair.
Item 2 of 4
Continuation of last week's lawnmowing shenanigans:
Sunday: I bring my corded electric lawnmower from home, and rent a gasoline generator from Home Depot. In three hours, I manage to cut the less-overgrown front one-third of the lot. This effort leaves me quite sore (which is why I don't try again until Thursday), and the more-overgrown back two-thirds still remains to be mowed.
Monday: The contractor claims once again that it "is getting someone to get it done".
Thursday (one day before govt.-imposed deadline): The contractor still hasn't cut the grass. I rent the generator again. This time, I've brought from home both a lawnmower and a string trimmer. However, (1) the lawnmower has some internal wiring that I previously fixed come loose in a weird way that I can't correct immediately⁎, and (2) the string trimmer is extremely inefficient, eating up two spools of string in cutting only a small area of grass. At this point, the owner of an adjacent lot (where he is constructing a house much larger than mine) suggests that I pay him 100 dollars to get the grass cut by the Friday deadline. I accept this offer.
Hopefully, at least one of these two contractors will not flake out and leave me on the hook for a 300-$/d govt. fine.
⁎I previously put three wires into a wire nut. But I guess the wire nut was too small or something, because not only did one wire come loose, but the exterior plastic part of the wire nut also detached from the internal metal part. I'll have to cut the wire nut off entirely, re-strip the ends of the wires, and add a new wire nut (or maybe one of those fancy Wago connectors).
Item 3 of 4
A person files for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Iowa. Among his debts is a 190-k$ loan from a bank. The Northern District's nearest courthouse is 10 miles from the debtor's house, 60 miles from the debtor's lawyer, 10 miles from the bank's headquarters, and 160 miles from the bank's lawyer (as measured by me "as the crow flies" in Google Maps; the measurements made by the judge in the opinion linked below are slightly different).
The bank points out that the person actually lives in the Southern District of Iowa, and moves for a change of venue. The Southern District's nearest courthouse is 60 miles from the debtor's house, 70 miles from the debtor's lawyer, 70 miles from the bank's headquarters, and 160 miles from the bank's lawyer.
The bankruptcy judge's "general practice is to retain improperly venued cases absent an objection from an opposing party". He is frustrated by the bank's motion here, since "all factors related to convenience and cost savings for all parties favor venue in this district" (emphasis in original), and "in other cases, like this one, the bank or its attorney appears to simply want to make things harder for the debtor". But the statute gives him no discretion, so he cannot avoid transferring the case to the Southern District.
Item 4 of 4
Absolute saga:
2017-04: Kevin dies intestate. His estate is split evenly between his four children, including Kareem. The estate includes a property on which property taxes of 7 k$ are owed.
2017-06: The municipal govt. sells a "tax-sale certificate" for the property to a company for 25 k$.
2019-10-01: The municipal govt. deems the property abandoned. The notice of abandonment is mailed only to the property itself, even though the govt. literally just said that it is abandoned and no one is living there. No one files a challenge to the decision.
2019-10-14: The company files a foreclosure complaint. Most of the possibly-interested parties are served personally (with letters addressed to them). However, "served" merely by publication (with an advertisement in the newspaper) are Kareem and his mother (not married to Kevin) Shadeerah (who has a child-support judgment against the property).
2020-06: No one redeems the tax-sale certificate for the govt.'s price of 47 k$, so the company successfully forecloses on the property.
2020-08-12: Kareem and Shadeerah move to vacate the foreclosure, arguing that they were not served properly. Shadeerah claims that all four heirs have authorized her to enter into a contract to sell the property for 185 k$, which would be more than enough to satisfy all debts.
2020-08-28: The trial court finds that the company was sufficiently diligent in trying to find addresses for Kareem and Shadeerah before giving up and serving them by publication. In particular, Shadeerah's abrupt move from her previous address just a few days before personal service was attempted, and her failure to leave a forwarding address with the landlord or the post office, thwarted the business's use of three different address-lookup services.
2022: The appeals panel vacates and remands in part. The trial judge failed to make any findings regarding the diligence of the business's search for Kareem, and must do so on remand.
2023: The trial judge finds that the company was sufficiently diligent in trying to find an address for Kareem. At the time, he was in jail, so in theory he should have been easy to find. However, in practice, (1) the aforementioned three address-lookup services showed no criminal activity for him, so the business had no reason to check the electronic court records, and (2) even if they had shown criminal activity, the electronic court records would have revealed only a bunch of people with the same first names and last names but different middle names.
2024: The appeals panel affirms on the topic at hand, but remands so that the trial judge can consider whether, under the federal Supreme Court's new ruling on "equity theft" and new state laws on the same topic, the foreclosure here was excessive.
2025: The trial judge finds that (1) the 2020 foreclosure was an invalid taking of property since it extinguished Kareem's excess equity on the basis of unpaid property tax, and must be vacated, but (2) the 2019 determination of abandonment remains valid, since it was based on the property's need for rehabilitation rather than on Kareem's failure to pay taxes.
2026: The appeals panel vacates and remands, reinstating the 2020 foreclosure. Kareem asked only for the return of his "stolen" excess equity. He didn't ask for the entire foreclosure to be overturned, and his three sibling co-owners definitely didn't ask for it! And the trial judge failed to properly investigate whether the municipal govt.'s determination of abandonment was appropriate in the first place.
So this court case is still going on, nine years after the tax-sale certificate was sold.
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