Idgaf if you don't want to write essays for school. I don't care if you don't want to write corporate emails yourself. I don't care if you can't draw well, I don't care if you can't write well, I don't care if you just really really want to talk to your favorite fictional character but don't want to RP with a real person because you have social anxiety or whatever

If you're still regularly using generative ai, chatgpt or midjourney or character.ai or literally whatever the fuck, im personally blaming you when my utility prices start going up.

Why would utility prices go up because of ai?

(I am not defending the usage of generative AI/ChatGPT/Character.ai etc etc i am very much against it - I am just curious as to the correlation between using it and utility price surge please don't come at me this is a genuine question)

Happy to help.

ChatGPT uses so much energy that the US is literally reversing course on coal and gas usage to make up for it. In Santa Clara, for example, data centers used 60% of the ENTIRE CITY'S electricity.

ChatGPT uses 1-3 bottles of water for cooling for every query you put into it. This is FRESH WATER, which is evaporated and eventually mostly returns to the ocean, effectively removing a lot of it from our already dwindling fresh water supply on the planet. It also consumes 17 THOUSAND TIMES more electricity than the average American home.

The AI boom wastes so much electricity that we are very immediately risking US cities having to have rolling blackouts just to keep up with the energy demands, as early as NEXT YEAR

Gen AI's water usage is projected to hit 6.6 BILLION meters cubed by 2027

More AI use = more data centers = power drain on local cities = gas, electricity, and water utility prices rise because all of our resources are being funneled into a machine that makes garbage

Okay, I've got like 5 episodes left but I am so impressed with Star Trek Prodigy. I really didn't think I was gonna like it because it's just hard for me to get into animation. IDK why. It's some sort of mental block. But, it's actually great. The storytelling is so strong. They have a perfect balance of arc/one off episodes.

And the animation is gorgeous. Because it's animation and not meant to be a comedy like Lower Decks (love you too LD <3) they make everything so pretty. The new planets. The nebulas. The ships. Even the characters. Dal is just a beautiful looking character. I love the purple and the spots around his eyes.

I love that a Medusan is one of the main characters. Since Is There in Truth No Beauty? is one of my favorite TOS episodes. And Zero is such a great character. I love them.

I have no attachment to Voyager but I do appreciate the characters being there. It doesn't feel forced. They found an organic story to work Janeway, Chakotay, and The Doctor in. God help me, they even Made Wesley Crusher cool!

All this to say, I'm now just as pissed as the rest of you that this got canned after only two seasons! I demand more Prodigy.

It still has a strong chance at more seasons.

Literally Kate Mulgrew herself has said that it isn't cancelled.

Come on @netflix you could be so. cool. right now.

THIS!

Even if it's just a silly comment like "Ha ha, Jankom is eating hot dogs! It's funny because he basically IS pork!" or debating what Ilthuran's favorite color is, or making extremely long fanfics, or even getting into discourse that drags new folks in to share their opinions.

Keep the hype up!

Okay, I've got like 5 episodes left but I am so impressed with Star Trek Prodigy. I really didn't think I was gonna like it because it's just hard for me to get into animation. IDK why. It's some sort of mental block. But, it's actually great. The storytelling is so strong. They have a perfect balance of arc/one off episodes.

And the animation is gorgeous. Because it's animation and not meant to be a comedy like Lower Decks (love you too LD <3) they make everything so pretty. The new planets. The nebulas. The ships. Even the characters. Dal is just a beautiful looking character. I love the purple and the spots around his eyes.

I love that a Medusan is one of the main characters. Since Is There in Truth No Beauty? is one of my favorite TOS episodes. And Zero is such a great character. I love them.

I have no attachment to Voyager but I do appreciate the characters being there. It doesn't feel forced. They found an organic story to work Janeway, Chakotay, and The Doctor in. God help me, they even Made Wesley Crusher cool!

All this to say, I'm now just as pissed as the rest of you that this got canned after only two seasons! I demand more Prodigy.

It still has a strong chance at more seasons.

Literally Kate Mulgrew herself has said that it isn't cancelled.

Why are there so many stories about "letting go" of TV shows and letting them end as if we aren't still deep into the era of streamers cancelling everything after a year or two. In what sense is shows Always Running Too Long the problem. And it's not even that long, people start writing "why must we demand things run forever???" pieces after two seasons. Heck, they start writing "do we really need more?" stories after one season. Why do so many people have the attitude that if you really like a show, and the creators want to keep it going, you need to beg for it to die as soon as possible since every moment it keeps existing it risks Becoming Bad

It wasn't even that long ago that shows would run for seven years! And with more episodes! Thirteen or even twenty! And often the best season was the sixth or even seventh! And people argue that TV shows find it impossible to sustain quality after, like, two or three years. Arguing for a strict definition of When TV Shows Must End that would've cut off DS9 before the Dominion War

nothing brings me more joy than critically engaging with media that was clearly not designed with critical engagement in mind. it’s the media studies equivalent of like, idk, trying to skateboard up a flight of stairs.

dal’s voice actor does such an amazing job in mindwalk like… that is literally janeway lol

Legitimate *pro bono legal services* don’t exist without a good reason. In a few of the exmormon groups I’m in you’ll see regular posts saying stuff like “Look what my lawyer sent me today!” with a pic of their resignation confirmation letter from the church.

You know. Just stuff that a normal average church that is definitely not actually a cult would do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As an ex-mormon, I’m gonna look the fuck into this. I want nothing to do with the church that shaped so much toxicity about my self image and my sexual orientation.

Not sure if any followers need this but if you do, here you go.

Everyone should be able to choose their religious beliefs and community, and leave any that they find does not work for them.

Ex mormon here - this guy’s legit. The Mormon holds your files for eternity, and when they find out that you’ve moved to a new area, they will send members and missionaries from that region to harass you. I know this sounds like dystopic bullshit, but they followed my father through three moves before he rejoined the church.

Also ex mormon here who used this. It’s a ridiculously helpful service that is incredibly easy to use. They keep you updated throughout the whole process, and it’s totally worth it since the church doesn’t get to keep all your private information and pass it around once you resign :)

Though this blog is mainly about Vikings in RPGs, history, and Norse Paganism, for anybody who may need this I Ieave it here for you because I never know what kinds of people follow my blog and all I care is that each and every one of you is safe and happy regardless of religion or lack of, if you choose. Be safe, and may whoever or whatever you believe in protect you in getting out of Mormanism.

A few years ago the church started requiring some people to get their resignation notarized (quit Mormon will still help walk you through that, it’s just an extra step you have to take when the process used to be incredibly simple). It doesn’t affect everyone and they tend to make men notarize more than they make wonen do it (gotta keep those priesthood holders in the church, y'know)

and also know that getting children under the age of 18 off church records is ridiculously difficult, the church’s lawyers kick and scream and drag their feet to keep them registered as members of the church. It’s like, sure at 8 years old this child was old enough to pledge ten percent of their income to you for the rest of their lives, but at 15 they’re not old enough to say “nah, I’m out”, it’s disgusting.

And one last thing, if you’re born into the church you don’t go on church records when you’re baptised at 8, you get put on church records after you get your baby blessing when you’re just a few weeks old. So if you have children and then leave the church, even the unbaptized ones will need to be removed from church records if they’ve been blessed. And blessed but unbaptized children are the most difficult to get off church records even though the child themselves have not made a conscious (if coerced) decision to join the church.

But y'know, totally not a cult.

[Image description: The image is a screenshot from a website. On the top half of the screen is a text saying “free legal assistance for anyone who wants to resign from the Mormon church”. The text is overlaid over a photo in mainly sot brown / orange tones of a road and some wild flowers. Right below it is a button named “Reisgn”. Below this is further text, black on white, titled “What is QuitMormon”, which says: Resigning from the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints can be a tedious and painful process. If you’ve decided that you no longer want to be a member of the church, resigning on your own can result in unwanted contact from church leaders and multiple requests before your resignation is finally processed. Our free service lets you avoid this process and provides privacy.

/end ID]

https://quitmormon.com/

At the risk of sounding ignorant why do you have to do anything legal to quit?

Aside from the cult harassment, can’t you just say “no sorry I don’t believe in your rules and blessings and baptisms anymore so your threats of hell don’t bother me”

it’s essentially how I quit the baptist/protestant bull shit I was raised in

Why do I need paperwork?

@inbabylontheywept can you explain for me please?

Still, signal boost for anyone who needs this info bc JFC of whatever day saints that’s crazy shit.

Just a warning, this is pretty long:

The Choctaw-Irish Brotherhood(via)

I love stuff like this. Didn’t a tribe in Africa send America some cows after 9/11? Like this is holy and the most valuable thing we have. We hear your suffering and want to do anything in our power to help

It was not a potato famine. The famine didn’t happen because of the potato yeald failing. Ireland was actually producing more than enough food. However it was almost all land owned by Brittish landowners, who took all of the food out of the country to sell in UK. Potato was what the Irish farmers ate, because it was cheep and could be produced in worst parts of the land, where more profitable food couldn’t be grown. When there were no longer potatos, the decision for the farmers was to either starve and sent the food as rent to the landlords or loose their homes and then starve.

The Brittish goverment was unwilling to do anything for two reasons. First was the laissez-faire capitalistic ideology, that put the rights of property owners to make profits above human lives. Rent freeze was unthinkable and they even were unwilling to do proper relief efforts as free food would lower the cost of food. The second reason was distain for the Irish, and the thought that they were “breeding too much” and the famine was a natural way to trim down the population, aka genocidal reasoning.

This is why it’s important to stress it was not a potato famine. The potato blinght was all over Europe but only in Ireland there was a famine. The reasons behind it had nothing to do with potatos and everything to do with the Brittish.

Apparently what made Choctaw want to offer relief to Irish was the news about the Doolough Tragedy. Hundreds of starving people were gathered for inspection to verify they were entitled to recieve relief. The officials would for *some reason* not do that and instead left to a hunting lodge 19 kilometers away to spend the night and said to the starvqing people they would have to walk there by morning to be inspected. The weather conditions were terrible and many of them died completely needlessly during the walk thoroung day and night.

This apparently reminded the Choctaw of their own very recent (and much more explicit and bigger scale) experiences of ethnic clensing, where they were forcibly relocated. It was basically a death march and thousands of Choctaw died from the terrible conditions also completely needlessly.

In 2015 a memorial named Kindred Spirits was installed in Southern Ireland to commemorate the Chactow donation.

Then in 2020:

Choctaw Nation has now added a monument of their own:

no sentence fills me with utter loathing so much as "i asked chatgpt"

I have been thinking a lot about what a cancer diagnosis used to mean. How in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when someone was diagnosed, my parents would gently prepare me for their death. That chemo and radiation and surgery just bought time, and over the age of fifty people would sometimes just. Skip it. For cost reasons, and for quality of life reasons. My grandmother was diagnosed in her early seventies and went directly into hospice for just under a year — palliative care only. And often, after diagnosis people and their families would go away — they’d cash out retirement or sell the house and go live on a beach for six months. Or they’d pay a charlatan all their savings to buy hope. People would get diagnosed, get very sick, leave, and then we’d hear that they died.

And then, at some point, the people who left started coming back.

It was the children first. The March of Dimes and Saint Jude set up programs and my town would do spaghetti fundraisers and raffles and meal trains to support the family and send the child and one parent to a hospital in the city — and the children came home. Their hair grew back. They went back to school. We were all trained to think of them as the angelic lost and they were turning into asshole teens right in front of our eyes. What a miracle, what a gift, how lucky we are that the odds for several children are in our favor!

Adults started leaving for a specific program to treat their specific cancer at a specific hospital or a specific research group. They’d stay in that city for 6-12 months and then they’d come home. We fully expected that they were still dying — or they’d gotten one of the good cancers. What a gift this year is for them, we’d think. How lucky they are to be strong enough to ski and swim and run. And then they didn’t stop — two decades later they haven’t stopped. Not all of them, but most of them.

We bought those extra hours and months and years. We paid for time with our taxes. Scientists found ways for treatment to be less terrible, less poisonous, and a thousand times more effective.

And now, when a friend was diagnosed, the five year survival odds were 95%. My friend is alive, nearly five years later. Those kids who miraculously survived are alive. The adults who beat the odds are still alive. I grew up in a place small enough that you can see the losses. And now, the hospital in my tiny hometown can effectively treat many cancers. Most people don’t have to go away for treatment. They said we could never cure cancer, as it were, but we can cure a lot of cancers. We can diagnose a lot of cancers early enough to treat them with minor interventions. We can prevent a lot of cancers.

We could keep doing that. We could continue to fund research into other heartbreaks — into Long Covid and MCAS and psych meds with fewer side effects and dementia treatments. We could buy months and years, alleviate the suffering of our neighbors. That is what funding health research buys: time and ease.

Anyway, I’m preaching to the choir here. But it is a quiet miracle what’s happened in my lifetime.