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Pop-psychology personality types are astrology for people who think they’re too smart for astrology. Very broad descriptions that fit anyone and trigger instant confirmation bias. Sometimes they still make handy metaphors. I thought about it last week with my last winter chanterelles pick in a forest, when I noticed how many gatherer archetype traits match my own behaviour. That led me to the book…
Когда мы впервые оказались в Германии 2000-х, русская речь тоже слышалась на каждом шагу. Не так массово, как сейчас, но всё же привычно. И почти каждая первая встреча с новым русскоязычным знакомым начиналась одинаково: — Вы шпэти или конти? Я смотрел в ответ и искренне не понимал, о чём речь. Видимо, по моему виду собеседники решали: только приехали, ничего не знают. И терпеливо объясняли: — Ну……
трилогия , жанры обозначены как "Бытовое фэнтези, Юмористическая фантастика, Романтическая фантастика". Ну я не знаю! - откуда фэнтези? На автортудэй 99% произведений - о попаданцах в разные миры и времена. Это тоже, как водится, о попаданке. Но на сюжет попадание и НФ-часть не влияет вообще никак. Просто сатира на корпоративный мир, НФ-сеттинг 30-го века с космическими кораблями и роботами…
Looking back at my own education, I realize I never really understood what grades meant. In school I always had straight A’s in math - through my 'math/physics magnet middle/high school' and the early university years. Then, near the end of my undergraduate studies and into graduate level, the abstraction level finally outran me. What once felt easy became a fog of symbols and proofs I could…
I was in middle school in the late 80s and early 90s, in a small town in the Soviet Union. Our school had a computer lab - a real rarity back then. In a class of about thirty, three kids had a PC at home. By sixth grade, those few could type, and the rest learned slowly at school. Twenty years later, in the mid-2000s, things were completely different. In most countries, almost every family had a…
I am still spreading antivax agenda online, and here is a very common counter-argument I am often confronted with. An official USA CDC publication: Cardiac Complications After SARS-CoV-2 Infection and mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination presumably proving that heart inflammation from covid is more common than one from the vaccine in both sexes and each age bracket. When reading this paper first I thought…
Jan's Dream "Papa," Jan said, staring out the kitchen window at the early summer rain. "I want to become a doctor. But with my grades… Abitur 2.0, maybe 1.9 if I’m lucky… that’s nothing. They say only with 1.0 or 1.1 you can even dream of medicine. It’s impossible." His father closed his laptop. "Then study harder, Junge." "But if an elder spirit comes," Jan pressed on, "everything changes. If I…
В нашем дачном массиве в 80-х царили инженеры. Народ полностью городской, с деревенскими терминами не знакомый. Сосед наш, инженер-конструктор Андрей Ильич, решил заняться птицеводством по-научному. Соорудил автоматические кормушки, поилки, птичник утеплил, почти куриная кремниевая долина получилась. Летом приезжал раз в неделю, а цыплята росли сами, будто в лаборатории под контролем алгоритмов.…
С тех пор, как я потерял примерно полмиллиона долларов из-за US federal covid vaccine mandate, я участвую в интернет срачах на эту тему (если они попадаются в моей ленте, специально для этого я никуда не бегаю). За последнюю неделю заметил две закономерности. 1. В постах антиваксеров не трут и не скрывают никакие комментарии, а в постах сторонников вакцинации от ковида никогда не трут и не…
Jacob's last U11 tournament with is over, and now it is time to buy a longer weapon and start attaching wire to the helmet. This time he only got 6th place; worse than before . And once again, most of dangerous opponents only practiced single move. The most strange one was a guy who was only using one move: take the priority, and ram the opponent with both blade and helmet, while covering his…
Just returned from the Upper Bavaria Open Fencing Tournament - Jacob’s first competition under German rules and his return to competitive fencing after a long break. The format followed European youth fencing regulations, which meant a significant equipment change for Jacob: a shorter and stiffer foil compared to one he was using in U.S. tournaments. ( Read more... ) comments
Here is how buggy messenger delivery status can lead to miscommunication. Message status: [Sent, Delivered, Read] My view, after mobile internet went down on my phone at some point: 1. Me: Going home now. [SDR] 2. Julia: We'll be at a grocery store soon, should I pick you up at station A? 3. Me: No, thanks, I'll exit at station B and walk home. [SD] 4. Me: I'll be there in 30 minutes. [S] 5. Me:…
When I was a kid, I was spending every summer holiday in my grandmother’s village in Russia. The region sits on a cultural and religious border between Christian and Islam parts, with surviving traces of pre-Christian paganism. Some villages still had practicing shamans who preserved old rituals that were rarely talked about openly, but widely respected. When I was 14 a drought had started in…
The most prominent LJ biologist recently wrote a long article about Trump's CDC/FDA appointees. One of his points was "А ещё мракобеса посадили в кресло директора FDA по оценке и изучению биопрепаратов, то есть вакцин и генных терапий. Это хирург Марти Мэкари, известный своей резонансной статьёй о том, что повторная вакцинация от ковида приносит мальчикам-подросткам больше вреда, чем пользы.…
Just got back from vacation, where we drove through 7 counties: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Italy, Monaco and France. 11 hours one way not accounting for traffic jams, and it took us 12 and 16 hours in real life. On our way back, I rented a Chalet in an Italian high mountain camping village called "Ёлки-Палки". It was great overall, but there was a small nuisance in one of the…
I just used local Deepseek-r1-llama70b-q8 model and asked it to translate my short story from a previous post to Russian. Here is the result: ( Read more... ) comments
As always, flu got me over the weekend. So I could hardly sleep with 39C+ fever, and could not help but use the time to write a dark sci-fi short text, heavily influenced by Isaac Asimov and Pavel Ievlev. Please see under a cut. ( Read more... ) comments
On December 31st we've moved to a new condo. Here is the view from a window: We were thinking first that we are choosing between an apartment in Munich close suburb or a house in a village, but finally had to settle for an apartment in a village not too far from Munich in the direction of Alps. comments
Recent (end of 2024!!) social media discussion: Someone: I won't do covid-19 boosters, they cause myocarditis. 3 upvotes, 8 downvotes. Pro-vaxer: Here is a link to a study proving that covid-19 vaccine causes myocarditis, but covid-19 causes myocarditis more often. 15 upvotes, no downvotes. Me: Could you please explain why you claim that this study proves that "covid-19 vaccine causes myocarditis,…
Maybe I am a bit too late, but I just discovered this guy Not a great literature, but OK. 1. "Кровь на воздух" - LLMs in space opera setting. Darkness - 5/10 2. "Седьмая мапа" Cyberpunk world - high tech, low life. Interesting setting - a cyberpunk city. Darkness - 7/10 3. "Хранители Мультиверсума ", Darkness - 8/10 2 & 3 are part of universe of великого кристалла мультивесума. The author knows…
Back in university, my friends and I had a trick when it came to exams in advanced physics and math courses: we’d try to sit exams with a postdoc or, better yet, a PhD student rather than a seasoned professor. Professors, with decades of experience, could gauge a student’s depth of understanding after just a few questions, accurately assigning grades. PhD students, however, lacked this refined…
After Black Forest released the Flux model, I think everyone started trying it and comparing with DALL-E3, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion 3. I am cancelling my Midjourney subscription. (Not that I used it a lot, local SD-3 was mostly good enough for me) On Mac, Flux just works with the following conda env setup: Python 3.11.3, pip install torch==2.3.1 torchaudio==2.3.1 torchvision==0.18.1…
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4:50pm your flight to Munich is delayed by 20 minutes. (Me - I see on the flightradar, thunderstorm on incoming flight route was not your fault.) 5:10 your flight is cancelled. Please start rebooking or eventually we‘ll rebook for you. (Me - $&@$!) 5:35 We changed our mind, your flight is delayed by 20 minutes. (Me - writing a post in Facebook with a great relief) 6:00pm more delays 6:20 we…
Интересно сравнить творчество трех самых плодовитых графоманов рунета. Если что, здесь я использую слово "графоман" отнюдь не как ругательное. Просто они очень любят писать, и публикуют в сети мегабайты и мегабайты своих художественных текстов. Еще ограничу время. Да, в 90-е был "король графоманов" Петухов, а в 2000е - Иар Эльтеррус. Но здесь я напишу о 2010-х и 2020-х. ( Read more... ) comments