ratcreature | Entries tagged with random

Apparently AIs that mimic neural networks start hallucinating if they work too long continuously on their task and need to rest with some static white noise type input? (Here's a press release by the Los Alamos lab researching this.) So it looks like all the SF where androids wouldn't need rest breaks was a bit too optimistic on the artificial brains being more efficient than ours...

I'm reading an erotic romance novel, so the characters are having sex early on, and the heroine's and hero's chemistry is decent, but I just can't get into the sex scene, because when the heroine woke up in the morning her dog was mentioned, and she didn't take it with her. So the heroine and hero had this chance meeting (well actually their second, but that's kind of irrelevant) some time before noon, and eventually we are getting to marathon sex in the evening after they do a lengthy lunch, and the heroine never got back to her apartment for her dog at any time.

How am I supposed to like a character who just forgets their dog because of pants feelings? Also it will certainly have peed and pooped in her apartment at this point.

dine alerted me to the existence of this IKEA product, so I got a "VÅRKÄNSLA" a while ago, and now assembled it in preparation for the Easter holidays. It is actually the total extent of my decoration.

So it comes in a flatpack:

In typical IKEA fashion one of the pieces was a bit scuffed (the head area of the main piece), because there's always something... but it was complete, non-broken, and the instructions where clear:

And this is the finished chocolate bunny:

I can't speak as to its taste yet, that will have to wait until Easter Sunday at least.

Just now I read that according to a review of multiple studies the insects populations are collapsing even faster than the (already bad) expectations were before, which will collapse all ecosystems and our food supply fast (even faster than climate change).

And since it's been 2017 since I did the last version of this poll...

Poll #21348 why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2019 ed.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17

View Respondents

Which inescapable disaster/crisis/calamity do you think is most likely to lead to your demise?

View Answers

I'll die in the ecological collapse caused by the ongoing insect extinction
2 (11.8%)

the climate change catastrophe will kill me through a grand disaster
2 (11.8%)

climate change will kill me slowly through failing crops and the like
5 (29.4%)

climate change will kill me fast but in a boring way through some horrible heat wave or such
5 (29.4%)

I'll die because thanks to the global water crisis I won't be able to afford clean drinking water
3 (17.6%)

the next high mortality rate pandemic will come for sure, possibly via climate change mosquitoes or ticks before they're all extinct
3 (17.6%)

no pandemics needed, I'll die of some treatable condition, not able to afford medicine, thanks to the health system crisis/collapse
9 (52.9%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by an ongoing global economic crisis/collapse in general
3 (17.6%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by the economic crisis/collapse following Brexit in particular
1 (5.9%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by some rampaging "alt-right"/neo-fascist mob that felt slighted on the internet
1 (5.9%)

I won't die from any of the above disasters directly, but while fleeing from it
0 (0.0%)

nuclear armageddon! started intentionally by horrible politicians
1 (5.9%)

nuclear armageddon! but brought on by pure stupidity, like someone misinterpreting some screen and/or pushing the wrong button
1 (5.9%)

terrorism! I'll be blown up by some shadowy terrorist organization
0 (0.0%)

terrorism! some deranged mob will lynch me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

terrorism! but it's my government who will dispose of me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

my government's malicious policies will kill me without them bothering to label me as "terrorist"
4 (23.5%)

crime! I'll end up as a victim in a crime statistic
0 (0.0%)

crime! but as a victim of the "tough on crime" policies, like tazered to death or shot by police and the like
0 (0.0%)

a meteorite will kill me in a huge extinction level event, but at least I have the consolation that everyone else will be dead along with me
0 (0.0%)

killer robots will get me
0 (0.0%)

killer robots will get me, but it will be an accident (less Terminator, more self-driving cars gone wrong)
1 (5.9%)

killer robots will get me, and somehow a Facebook algorithm will be at fault
1 (5.9%)

killer robots will get me, but it will be Amazon's algoritm that did it
0 (0.0%)

I will be killed by a Google algorithm smart enough to make it look like it's not killer robots
0 (0.0%)

I'll get killed by the zombie apocalypse
0 (0.0%)

I'll get killed by the zombie army I raised to protect myself, falling victim to dramatic irony
1 (5.9%)

and so on and so forth... (civilian nuclear disaster! genetically modified crops! micro-plastics!...)
0 (0.0%)

Current Mood: anxious

But when looking for some random TV distraction that is not news, because those are so depressing and anxiety inducing, settling on a Thirty Year War documentary might not have been the best choice.

After reading another article about how Neanderthals may have contributed even more to the genetic mix of modern humans outside of Africa than previously assumed, I've been wondering how these groups of humans would have seen each other.

Would they have actually thought the other group to be more different than other groups of their own "species"? (I'm actually not sure you can really call these human subtypes different species when they could and did reproduce with fertile offspring, but from what I gather the species concept overall just breaks down at certain points when you poke at it anyway.)

I mean, sure when you look at Neanderthal reconstructions they look somewhat different from us, but not different like a chimpanzee, and modern humans among ourselves also have quite a lot of variation (though I'm not sure how much of that had developed at what time), not just skin color, hair and eye color but facial features, size etc. leading to the whole "human races" construction, and the difficulty to get to a consensus that we are in fact all fundamentally the same. So if you are an early Homo Sapiens and see a Neanderthal would you think them really "other" or just somewhat "other" (i.e. like some unrelated other clan of Homo Sapiens)? They also had tools, fire and probably art too after all.

Of course we probably won't ever know, and afaik they haven't found sites of mixed groups that might be a sign that the mixing was even somewhat consensual. And there doesn't seem to have been that much mingling considering both kinds shared Europe several thousand years.

So then another interesting question is of course whether the later Neanderthals were aware that they were slowly going extinct. I imagine they must have been on some level, as their groups got rarer and modern humans more numerous, but then each group might think it a local problem?

I feel like there should be more speculative fiction about this. The examples with Neanderthal appearances I've read were either older (like Auel) and/or more like SF with alternate timelines where they didn't die out (like Neanderthal Parallax) and such.

In the little bit over a year since I last did this the news got of course even worse, and yet I still seem unable to just limit myself to looking at fluffy animal pictures.

Still with ticky boxes for everybody who can't decide what to be most anxious about:

Poll #18679 why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2017 ed.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

View Respondents

Which inescapable disaster/crisis/calamity do you think is most likely to lead to your demise?

View Answers

nuclear armageddon! started intentionally by horrible politicians
6 (26.1%)

nuclear armageddon! but brought on by pure stupidity, like someone misinterpreting some screen and/or pushing the wrong button
5 (21.7%)

the next high mortality rate pandemic will come for sure, possibly via climate change mosquitoes
3 (13.0%)

no pandemics needed, I'll die of some treatable condition, not able to afford medicine, thanks to the health system crisis/collapse
7 (30.4%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by an ongoing global economic crisis/collapse in general
4 (17.4%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by the economic crisis/collapse following Brexit in particular
1 (4.3%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by some rampaging "alt-right" mob that felt slighted on the internet
4 (17.4%)

the climate change catastrophe will kill me through a grand disaster
4 (17.4%)

climate change will kill me slowly through failing crops and the like
8 (34.8%)

climate change will kill me fast but in a boring way through some horrible heat wave or such
6 (26.1%)

I'll die because thanks to the global water crisis I won't be able to afford clean drinking water
3 (13.0%)

I'll die in some armed conflict brought on by the above (or other) ecological disasters
3 (13.0%)

I won't die from any of the above disasters directly, but while fleeing from it
2 (8.7%)

terrorism! I'll be blown up by some shadowy terrorist organization
1 (4.3%)

terrorism! some deranged mob will lynch me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

terrorism! but it's my government who will dispose of me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

my government's malicious policies will kill me without them bothering to label me as "terrorist"
7 (30.4%)

crime! I'll end up as a victim in a crime statistic
0 (0.0%)

crime! but as a victim of the "tough on crime" policies, like tazered to death or shot by police and the like
0 (0.0%)

a meteorite will kill me in a huge extinction level event, but at least I have the consolation that everyone else will be dead along with me
1 (4.3%)

killer robots will get me
1 (4.3%)

killer robots will get me, but it will be an accident (less Terminator, more self-driving cars gone wrong)
4 (17.4%)

I'll get killed by the zombie apocalypse
0 (0.0%)

I'll get killed by the zombie army I raised to protect myself, falling victim to dramatic irony
1 (4.3%)

and so on and so forth... (civilian nuclear disaster! genetically modified crops! (lack of) bees!...)
8 (34.8%)

Is there some sort of big current wank/kerfuffle going on right now that I've been totally oblivious to? Somehow I never notice these things even if I'm in a fandom at the time they are happening.

I've seen vague references while browsing my network reading list, but as is usual for me I couldn't connect it to anything. They could maybe be referring to the YOI wank that was even featured in this week's OTW newsletter. (A wank I incidentally also missed happening on Tumblr, but then I'm not into YOI though it appears on my dash from time to time because I'm into Check Please! and there is overlap in fans.)

But I'm not sure. I always miss these things.

Current Mood: confused

Going to your bookmarks on AO3, that you tagged with "To Read" for later, only to see a blank "This has been deleted, sorry!" placeholder in your list. :(

...to find a new WIP update notification in your mail and then, when you go to read it, AO3 is down.

Current Mood: thwarted

I just clicked a kudo button twice on AO3 by accident because my tablet was lagging, and it resulted in two kudos with my name showing up in the list, rather than one kudo and an error.

But it seems this was just a glitch because of my wonky clicking. At least when I tried leaving kudos again on a WIP I follow that didn't work. Too bad, I wouldn't mind being able to leave more than one, especially with long chaptered stories.

I unwittingly caused a life and death drama in my fridge's vegetable drawer: I just found a giant, dead caterpillar (well about four centimeters long) in the bowl of plums I had also stored in the drawer. It definitely wasn't in the plums when I put them there, considering that I transfered them to said bowl from a bag and it was too big to have been inside any of the plums without doing obvious damage (and not the type of critter you commonly find in plums either). I think it must have come hidden in the cauliflower I also stored in the drawer (though that wasn't sitting directly next to the plums), somehow tried to desperately escape the cold or something, and then expired in my plums.

Well, I guess it's good to know that despite not being organic or anything, my cauliflower was wildlife supporting. I kind of feel bad for it, trying to escape and then slowly dying of cold. It was still unpleasant when I found that thing as I just wanted to grab some plums to snack on, though.

Thanks to

goss' invite I'm now namesquatting at Imzy, a new platform that is sort of like reddit but with some setup changes that are supposed to discourage trolling. I'm not sure how similar the interface is because I never got a reddit account and rarely even read threads there, but apparently it was created by some ex-reddit guy.

Also on Imzy there is some inbuilt system that makes it possible to pay/tip for posters'/moderators' content, which is intended to eventually finance the thing by Imzy getting some cut of those transactions, instead of having advertising? But I'm not really clear on that.

It doesn't seem very large yet, e.g. when during the sign-up process I searched for communities based on my interests there wasn't even one for pet rats yet and not many fandom ones either, but maybe it'll take off.

Anyway, now in turn I have five invites, so if you want one to check out that site, comment with your email. (Or if you don't want to give your email in public, comment and then PM me the address through DW or such -- I didn't set comments to screened because then you can't see whether five others have commented already.)

I really hope summer will get a bit drier as it goes on. However, I'd be happy if it stayed on the cool side, because anything above 25°C makes me miserable. Though actually according to a weather press notice I just read, it turns out the average June temperature has been almost two degrees above the long term average here, but I guess it didn't feel like it because it's been much wetter than usual (135l per sqm instead of 70l per sqm).

Anyway, I feel like indulging the time honored tradition of weather griping, so have a poll:

Poll #17550 summer weather griping

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

View Respondents

In which ways does your summer's weather suck thus far?

View Answers

it's too hot
10 (37.0%)

it's too cold
6 (22.2%)

it's too dry
7 (25.9%)

it's too rainy
10 (37.0%)

summer is failing in some other way
2 (7.4%)

summer weather here has been great actually
2 (7.4%)

it's not summer where I am
1 (3.7%)

It's been awhile since I last did this. Unfortunately the news haven't gotten any better. Still with ticky boxes for everybody who can't decide what to be most anxious about.

Poll #17523 why ratcreature should only look at pictures of fluffy baby animals, 2016 ed.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Which inescapable disaster/crisis/calamity do you think is most likely to lead to your demise?

View Answers

the next high mortality rate pandemic will come for sure, possibly via climate change mosquitoes
3 (42.9%)

no pandemics needed, I'll die of some treatable condition, not able to afford medicine, thanks to the health system crisis/collapse
1 (14.3%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by the ongoing global economic crisis/collapse in general
1 (14.3%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by the economic crisis/collapse following the Brexit in particular
1 (14.3%)

I'll die in a riot/civil unrest brought on by rampaging football fans
1 (14.3%)

the climate change catastrophe will kill me through a grand disaster
2 (28.6%)

climate change will kill me slowly through failing crops and the like
3 (42.9%)

climate change will kill me fast but in a boring way through some horrible heat wave or such
3 (42.9%)

I'll die because thanks to the global water crisis I won't be able to afford clean drinking water
0 (0.0%)

I'll die in some armed conflict brought on by the above (or other) ecological disasters
1 (14.3%)

I'll die in some armed conflict brought on by pure stupidity, like someone misinterpreting some screen and/or pushing the wrong button
1 (14.3%)

terrorism! I'll be blown up by some shadowy terrorist organization
0 (0.0%)

terrorism! but it's my government who will dispose of me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

terrorism! some deranged mob will lynch me as "terrorist"
0 (0.0%)

crime! I'll end up as a victim in a crime statistic
1 (14.3%)

crime! but as a victim of the "tough on crime" policies, like tazered to death or shot by police and the like
0 (0.0%)

a meteorite will kill me in a huge extinction level event, but at least I have the consolation that everyone else will be dead along with me
2 (28.6%)

killer robots will get me
0 (0.0%)

killer robots will get me, but it will be an accident (less Terminator, more self-driving cars gone wrong)
2 (28.6%)

I'll get killed by the zombie apocalypse
0 (0.0%)

I'll get killed by the zombie army I raised to protect myself, falling victim to dramatic irony
1 (14.3%)

and so and so forth... (nuclear disaster! war! genetically modified crops! (lack of) bees!...)
1 (14.3%)

I was making myself some banana-oatmeal pancakes for breakfast when a tiny fruitfly decided to commit suicide by flinging itself into the hot butter. So I had to fish a tiny fried insect out of my pan. I guess it was lucky it didn't try to land on the then still soft topside of my pancakes.

So how many tries does it typically take to get the knack of this technique? After consulting online instructions I just tried it for the first time, and the result was not encouraging. I mean, it was edible and had the characteristics of poached egg in that the yolk was warm but still runny and the egg white was cooked, so not a total fail, but I didn't manage to make the egg white adhere to the egg yolk, and instead had to fish out most of it in bits from the water.

We got lucky with the weather and so far it's clear after all (the forecasts were unsure about fog). And I can conveniently see it directly from my bedroom window that's in the right direction. It's very pretty with the red cast to it. And considering that I am constantly waking up due to my stupid cold, the cough and the clogged nose anyway, the sleep disruption to watch isn't even much worse than it would have been otherwise.

Checking links can also be hazardous (or at least leave you in need of brain bleach). I just clicked on a story link, the fanfic site has vanished, but now there is a site with porn videos titled "granny fucking video" featuring delightful content such as "dog fucks grandma" videos. At least they weren't autoplay. Yikes.

It adds motivation to also update my xover rec page (which unfortunately right now inadvertently links to this crap), though. On the upside, the story in question is still online elsewhere.

So werewoves in fiction generally are good at regeneration, also they tend to grow canines when they shift. Do you think when an adult human gets bitten and transforms into a werewolf form for the first time they regrow any missing/crowned teeth?

I mean that has to be a common issue, because most adult humans have at least have a crown or two by their thirties, often earlier, yet I can't remember ever seeing a scene in werewolf fiction where the newly made werewolf has to spit out their now obsolete dental implants...

Current Mood: whimsical

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RatCreature

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RatCreature's Journal

Entries tagged with random

it looks like AI get sleep deprived too?

it's the little things tripping you

flatpack chocolate bunny

the catastrophe options seem to expand every day

kind of obvious in retrospect

idle musings

no limits to your catastrophizing choice these days...

perpetually feeling out of the loop in fandom

depressing fandom things

that's just cruel...

Looks like it was a glitch not a feature update

ew

does anyone want an Imzy invite?

weather griping

I ought to just stop watching the news

wtf, fruitfly?

poaching eggs

lunar eclipse...

Gaah!

random werewolf thought of the day

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December 2022

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