In other news today...
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@tsaukpaetra Yes, it is him - well, now it is. Didn't you know that Blakey is really Agent Smith?
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@masonwheeler said in In other news today...:
It seems that theoreticians and physicists (and the comments here) are discovering what theologians have known for millennia: characteristics of the nature of God.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
It seems that theoreticians and physicists (and the comments here) are discovering what theologians have known for millennia: characteristics of the nature of God.
Yeah, that's always the first thing that goes through my mind when someone says we're living in a simulated world created by some outside entity to observe us and see what we'll do: congratulations, you've just discovered Christianity through science!
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@masonwheeler >99% of the universes I've observed were created in my own head so I could watch them. I see no reason to assume the sole outlier isn't also in someone's head.
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@masonwheeler said in In other news today...:
congratulations, you've just discovered
Christianitytheism through science!Christianity is a rather specific subset of theism, and I don't think that (or perhaps any) specific restriction is discoverable; rather, it requires some sort of divine revelation.
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@bulb said in In other news today...:
And the same goes for any laws that prohibit viewing of child pornography which include drawings: the efficiency at finding dangerous paedophiles is questionable at best and the current position of psychologists is that watching pornography satisfies the desire thereby reducing the urge to do it for realâwhich implies the effect of such law would be negative.
There is a difference between viewing terroristic material and viewing child porn, though. Like you said, people could be viewing terroristic material in order to find or know better how to handle terrorists. On the other hand, there is nothing to be learned about pedophiles by viewing child pornography. And while there may be a temporary satisfaction for pedophiles who watch it, it just keeps feeding their addiction. "The eyes of man(-kind) are never satisfied." There is also the detrimental effect on the whole for a society that permits any segment of its population to watch child porn for any reason.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
there is nothing to be learned about pedophiles by viewing child pornography
Law enforcement need to view it to verify that it is CP. I understand the people on that duty get rotated out quickly as it's a harrowing experience.
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
And while there may be a temporary satisfaction for pedophiles who watch it, it just keeps feeding their addiction
The science isn't settled on that AFAIK. The hypotheses that porn in general can sate desire and prevent acting out the fantasies in reality, vs that it normalises the behaviour and makes it more likely to be acted out are both plausible but unverified
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@rhywden said in In other news today...:
Hines responded pretty carefully on the greater subject, but he didn't seem concerned about losing a few sales to an anti-Nazi ad campaign: "To be honest, people who are against freeing the world from the hate and murder of a Nazi regime probably aren't interested in playing Wolfenstein."
Next up: Someone will call for a boycott on The Man in the High Castle.
Don't German laws prohibit video games from depicting swastikas, even on the uniforms and flags of Nazi villains in a WWII setting?
I would think that would turn Wolfenstein into just an anti-tyranny game, instead of anti-Nazi.
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@hardwaregeek said in In other news today...:
Christianity is a rather specific subset of theism, and I don't think that (or perhaps any) specific restriction is discoverable; rather, it requires some sort of divine revelation.
Please recalibrate your irony meter. It appears to be broken.
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@masonwheeler Oh, I get the irony of Science! Science! Science! Science! discovering theism, of any sort. I am merely pointing out that the theism Science! Science! Science! Science! might discover is not necessarily the Christian version of theism.
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@ScholRLEA said in In other news today...:
@Tsaukpaetra Yes, it is him - well, now it is. Didn't you know that Blakey is really
Agent Smithboomzilla?FTFWTDWTF
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@jaloopa said in In other news today...:
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
there is nothing to be learned about pedophiles by viewing child pornography
Law enforcement need to view it to verify that it is CP. I understand the people on that duty get rotated out quickly as it's a harrowing experience.
That's true; maybe I should have made a distinction between viewing and seeing? LEOs/courts would only need to see that it is CP. They certainly don't need to view the whole piece of media.
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
And while there may be a temporary satisfaction for pedophiles who watch it, it just keeps feeding their addiction
The science isn't settled on that AFAIK. The hypotheses that porn in general can sate desire and prevent acting out the fantasies in reality, vs that it normalises the behaviour and makes it more likely to be acted out are both plausible but unverified
It's not "settled science" only because of the complexity of scientifically determining mental state and because of the politics of rigorously defining what exactly is CP beyond "I know it when I see it". However, breaking a bad habit doesn't involve indulging that habit. The urge has to be denied and denied and denied until it weakens and disappears. Giving in to the urge instead of denying it just makes it that much harder the next time. People who have broken a porn addiction (or any addiction) know that this is true by experience.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
It's not "settled science" only because of the complexity of scientifically determining mental state and because of the politics of rigorously defining what exactly is CP beyond "I know it when I see it". However, breaking a bad habit doesn't involve indulging that habit. The urge has to be denied and denied and denied until it weakens and disappears.
Yes, but not everybody is able to break the addiction that way. And the porn thing is more like a substitution treatment, which might work for those who don't manage the direct way.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
LEOs/courts would only need to see that it is CP. They certainly don't need to view the whole piece of media.
If they're trying to catch the guy who actually created said CP, yes they would, in great detail. Even though there's no magic "zoom, enhance" technology, I seem to recall a few cases where the pedophile got busted because of a view from a window or other detail which helps narrow down the location or the person of interest.
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@Bulb How else do people break an addiction?
Substitution with something similar isn't actually breaking the addiction. At best, it's weaning off, but the addiction can't be considered broken until they're off the substitute as well. And some things have to be quit cold turkey (or never started in the first place whenever possible, hence preventative measures).
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
people could be viewing terroristic material in order to find or know better how to handle terrorists.
Law enforcement, yes. That doesn't mean anyone else needs to.
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
there is nothing to be learned about pedophiles by viewing child pornography
Again, law enforcement... and there's "who they are", "where they live", and "what children have they hurt", to begin with.
I don't really see any difference between the two scenarios. The argument that "nobody except law enforcement should be allowed to possess or view such materials" could be made equally well for either of them.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
@Bulb How else do people break an addiction?
Well, some people never manage to. But if the addiction is dangerous, something still needs to be done about it.
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
Substitution with something similar isn't actually breaking the addiction.
Well, no. But if the substitute does not cause the problems associated with the original addiction, the main objective is achieved.
And pathological urges and addictions are not really the same thing. What works on addictions may not apply to urges.
@anotherusername said in In other news today...:
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
people could be viewing terroristic material in order to find or know better how to handle terrorists.
Law enforcement, yes. That doesn't mean anyone else needs to.
And researchers. And various security guards. And journalists. And these categories have no strict boundaries these daysâŚ
@anotherusername said in In other news today...:
@djls45 said in In other news today...:
there is nothing to be learned about pedophiles by viewing child pornography
Again, law enforcement... and there's "who they are", "where they live", and "what children have they hurt", to begin with.
And researchers. Again, not really strictly defined group.
@anotherusername said in In other news today...:
I don't really see any difference between the two scenarios. The argument that "nobody except law enforcement should be allowed to possess or view such materials" could be made equally well for either of them.
I don't really see any difference either. I just see many ways the argument is broken for both.
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@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
Sometimes you can only wonder. He wouldn't have wanted a single reset-the-machine key that you could accidentally press on the PC/XT. So presumably he'd have wanted IBM to create a new keyboard with a SAK when NT came out in 1993? Looking at the huge success of the PS/2 and Microchannel it doesn't seem like IBM could have forced that onto others even if they'd wanted to, so NT wouldn't have worked with any other manufacturer's machine. Right, that sounds like what MS would have preferred.
Anyway MS got manufacturers to put their stupid "Windows keys" onto keyboards just a few years later, that would have been the time to fix that.
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@jaloopa said in In other news today...:
Law enforcement need to view it to verify that it is CP. I understand the people on that duty get rotated out quickly as it's a harrowing experience.
I still have in my bookmarks list the blog of a French computer scientist who works as an expert for tribunals (oh, apparently he has an English version, although not quite up to date). From time to time, he works in child pornography cases and has to dig through HDDs and DVDs to see if it contains reprehensible material. That leads to posts like this one (that's the first one I found in the English version, there are more if you dig through the archives).
Harrowing indeed :-(
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@rhywden said in In other news today...:
@benjamin-hall said in In other news today...:
@dragoon said in In other news today...:
@benjamin-hall said in In other news today...:
It's not my favorite either. I'd rather have a default sunset provision--all laws need to be revisited every X years and automatically go away if not repassed.
Yeah, I can't think of any problems with that. Nope, none at all.
There would have to be some changes, to be sure. It would also help to have fewer laws in total. Keep the legislature busy re-evaluating and re-passing laws
And then you get a deadlock over some isse, the timeout passes by and murderers walk free.
If we bus the murderers over to the legislature on release, they can express their opinions in person.
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@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
I hope they're not going to use âHeadâ as a substitute term, out of respect for people who are complete bell-endsâŚ
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The first commenter sums it up beautifully:
You know you screwed up in a legendary fashion as a lawyer when a judge is hinting to your client that they might want to pay some of the fines levied against them by taking it out of your hide.
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Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds... nor even the gloom of smoke from the burnt-to-the-ground houses to which the mail's being delivered.
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@boomzilla Wait. Was it a bar tab or a restaurant bill?
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@masonwheeler We'll probably never know.
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@masonwheeler said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla Wait. Was it a bar tab or a restaurant bill?
Maybe it was the bar tab in a restaurant?
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@boner at intrsuive anti-adblock crud.
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@pjh said in In other news today...:
Oh no! Scandalous skin!
Why aren't men censored like this? Sex shaming!
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@anotherusername said in In other news today...:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds... nor even the gloom of smoke from the burnt-to-the-ground houses to which the mail's being delivered.
That video reminded me of this The Perry Bible Felllowship comic:
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Edit:
Person on HN:
Did Humble Bundle let IGN name their own price?
Reply:
Better question: how much of that did IGN decide to give to charities?
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This seems pretty cool:
It'd occurred to me before that it was a shame that people who need devices to speak can't have individual voices, and that it should be possible to record a lot more and let people have regional accents and so on, but this takes it further by combining it with the sounds the person can make which is quite cool.
If anyone fancies doing so, you can donate your own voice here.
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@carrievs said in In other news today...:
it was a shame that people who need devices to speak can't have individual voices
Stephen Hawking has had people offer to upgrade his speech software to the more natural sounding modern ones, but refused on the grounds that it's his voice and has been for decades
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@jaloopa But I imagine he might well have preferred a more natural voice when he first started using a speech synthesiser, if it had been available.
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@carrievs Yeah, he's in a pretty unique situation as probably the most famous person to have that voice, and having had it for years before anything better became available
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@jaloopa said in In other news today...:
@carrievs Yeah, he's in a pretty unique situation as probably the most famous person to have that voice
If not the very only person. This Business Insider article says:
Hawking was so happy with the movie [ed: The Theory of Everything] that he told filmmakers he would allow them to swap the synthetic voice they had been forced to create and replace it with his own, trademarked computerized version.
Prof. Hawking's own site doesn't mention anything about a trademark, but ACAT (the synthesizer) doesn't come with his voice:
ACAT doesnât include Prof. Stephen Hawking's voice for text-to-speech. It uses Microsoftâs Speech Synthesizer API and the default TTS voice on the target machine.
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@zecc said in In other news today...:
@jaloopa said in In other news today...:
@carrievs Yeah, he's in a pretty unique situation as probably the most famous person to have that voice
If not the very only person. This Business Insider article says:
Hawking was so happy with the movie [ed: The Theory of Everything] that he told filmmakers he would allow them to swap the synthetic voice they had been forced to create and replace it with his own, trademarked computerized version.
Prof. Hawking's own site doesn't mention anything about a trademark, but ACAT (the synthesizer) doesn't come with his voice:
ACAT doesnât include Prof. Stephen Hawking's voice for text-to-speech. It uses Microsoftâs Speech Synthesizer API and the default TTS voice on the target machine.
While Prof. Hawking likely has a voice profile which is not publicly available, it mostly sounds like that article's editor unwittingly made that change, maybe forgetting that "trademark" can be used as an adjective as well as a verb.
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@carrievs said in In other news today...:
This seems pretty cool:
It'd occurred to me before that it was a shame that people who need devices to speak can't have individual voices, and that it should be possible to record a lot more and let people have regional accents and so on, but this takes it further by combining it with the sounds the person can make which is quite cool.
If anyone fancies doing so, you can donate your own voice here.
I was using ModelTalker but didn't finish my sampling before getting busy again...
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ď I thought the onebox worked for GSMArena. Did something change? Anyway the headline is:
Apple iPhone 7 outselling iPhone 8
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First detection of the merger of two neutron stars via gravitational waves:
The paper:
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@mzh said in In other news today...:
First detection of the merger of two neutron stars via gravitational waves:
"Pop" go the neutron stars...
No. Really:
Scientists can convert the gravitational wave signal into sound
... with a (short) accompanying video.