Is this syndrome similar to pierogi paralysis? I am missing large parts of my 20s due to my wife introducing me to them.

Yeah, the federation can sometimes act like shitlibs. I’m certain that colonization in the trek universe is driven by people who get annoyed with the smugness and need a fresh start.

‘They’ do want it to happen. Ordinary USians are gettng uppity and need to be taken down a peg.

The global elite don’t really need anything specific from the US anymore. For a brief moment, the world needed our higher education system, which is why anyone under 60 who went to grad school had lots of non-US folks in their cohorts. Those folks have gone back home in large part so there are plenty of skilled experts in critical fields internationally.

The US has no remaining unique resources, be they skilled people or natural resources. So we need to be dealt with since many of us still hold on to quaint notions like ‘freedom’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘living wage’.

It means you only do weed and shrooms

These advertisement-delivery systems at the pumps piss me off. They blare loudly.

Here’s a question for the techie crowd.

I used to be able to press the physical buttons on either side of these screens and get the ads to mute. It was a two-button combo I discovered using a systematic method as a way to control my irritation at the excessive volume. It was either that or stick a pencil in the speaker.

This worked at gas stations in several states for months. The mute feature was surely written in as a sanity saver for the developers and technicians. It stopped working a few weeks ago, so I guess the pushed out a patch.

Not much of a question I guess, except what gives? Does anyone have insight into these systems for realsies?

Right. It seems analogous to regenerative braking in a gas/electric hybrid car. The momentum is turned back into electricity to reclaim potential energy. Some of the energy was already spent in RO stage and this process gets some of it back.

Ugg you are so backwards on this. It is clear you see the mechanism behind how the media enforces the status quo, which is working just fine for a sliver of our population. But your proposed solution is what? Capitulation? Acceptance of second class citizenship?

Nah. Me personally, I am going to remind every Christian I know exactly how they fail to act in a Christian manner.

I am an atheist, but I am also a Red Letter Christian. I have read and thought deeply about the words Jesus actually spoke, there are versions of the bible where his words are printed in red ink.

There is plenty of dissent within most churches on these issues. It does the cause of justice no harm to remind Christians, im a pointed way if necessary, that they are failing to even attempt to live by Jesus’s direct teachings.

Fun fact: you do not need permission to re-word your own texts if you realize upon re-reading it that one sounds like a snarky bitch.

Yes, regarding the mesh. I was wondering if a flexible mesh might be better. Toynbee tiles seem to become illegible mostly because individual pieces shift over time and make them look more of a jumble, this becomes more pronounced as the individual pieces become smaller. I was thinking more fiberglass, too, but even burlap would be fine probably.

A good flexible adhesive on the back of the pieces then pressed firmly into the fiberglass/cloth and weighted until set up.

One thing to consider is that the asphalt crack filler needs to be pressed into and around the pieces, serving a role similar to grout in tile. So the order of operations would be important. That’s more of an assembly issue, I guess.

There are numerous open source tile mosaic softwares out there that will generate the tiling, including the needed gaps for ‘grout’.

And Armstrong Flooring makes VCT in a huge array of colors. A source for vinyl tile of specific colors

Super fun, I am going to talk with my local folks and find a good location for a small test of these ideas. Such fun, thanks for engaging

Yeah, it’s intriguing.

I have given it some thought and they could be made even more durable by using vinyl flooring adhesive to adhere the mosaic pieces to a backing of wire mesh.

The usual method uses only asphalt crack filler, which is still necessary, but it also requires one to assemble the design backwards. Adhering to metal mesh first would allow one to assemble it front the viewer’s perspective and reduce shifting of the pieces over time for more durability.

Not to mention that a basic CNC machine could cut the vinyl very precisely and in elaborate shapes. One could really take the quality and durability of the designs up a notch or two using the old noggin and modern Maker tools.

So now I am going to have to think of a place locally to do this….

Has anyone heard of Toynbee Tiles? These are interesting by themselves but the relevant point is how they are made.

You make a mosaic out of vinyl flooring chunks on a backing of paper and roofing tar as mastic.

You place them paper side up on asphalt pavement in hot weather. As cars drive over them, the paper and tar wear off revealing the vinyl mosaic.

Just a thought that a group of people could quickly make a rainbow crosswalk that can’t be painted over.

Toynbee Tiles

Thank Glob. Let me be an ‘individual contributor’ while those who don’t know better yet run interference with corporate.

See my comment to OP for a recentish publication that shows the same thing all studies previously have shown. You are quite correct.

No one that has looked at this in a serious way agrees with you.

From the abstract:

“These results suggest that the movements involved in handwriting allow a greater memorization of new words. The advantage of handwriting over typing might also be caused by a more positive mood during learning. Finally, our results show that handwriting with a digital pen and tablet can increase the ability to learn compared with keyboard typing once the individuals are accustomed to it.”

Handwriting helps retention better than typing.

Yeah, that’s the way I write. It’s the other way around though. LLM are trained on a lot of academic writing.

So I guess, LLM sound like me?

Yes please! I volunteer to be Whitey if it’s a perfoart piece.

I agree, and perhaps some deep diving to find an older dot matrix printer? Should be supremely hackable. I only have experience with these:

Next-gen teletypes

They were extremely durable and low maintenance. Also loud and more stress inducing than a modern SMS notification.

Good times

That was a complete rabbit hole. Thanks.

The only thing possibly more epic would be converting a Linotype to a Linux terminal. It uses hot lead to create type for newspapers, etc.

I was trained to use one as there were so many in use they still have some niche applications for specialty printing.

Anyhow, I call them Satan’s Typewriters and still have small scars from hot lead all over my forearms. And I love technology.

A good film:

Linotype: The Film

Training can be reinforced by opining on said media at work, with friends and online. Feedback from these other models in the form of their own wrong opinions about the media reinforces one’s own model to always be right.

You are absolutely correct that is a major theme, especially in the Foundation books. To be fair, Asimov also buried that point in ponderous prose and scattered it across centuries of book-time.

I think Goyer did the best one could do in adapting Foundation to visual media. He had to invent and re-imagine a lot in order to give continuity and cohesion to a sprawling story. If he had stayed more true to the books, it would have flopped instantly.