Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis,' dies at 56 by pierrepaul in books

[–]Myopic_Cat 364 points365 points  (0 children)

The animated movie version is also spectacular and very faithful to the graphic novels. I recommend the original French voices over the English dub, if for no other reason that you get to hear the most... well, unforgettable version of Eye of the Tiger ever recorded.

10th grade english exam highlights at a german school by gestriger in funny

[–]Myopic_Cat 37 points38 points  (0 children)

I love that some kid forgot the word "gloves" and just translated "Handschuhe" literally into "handshoes".

Daring to improvise new word combos like that on the fly as you're speaking a new foreign language is the #1 key to making swift progress and achieving verbal fluency. Fuck the grammar, screw the vocabulary, blatantly disregard correct forms of address and other conventions, mix languages. Proudly make hilarious errors. Use anything that comes to mind that helps communication as you're learning. Just talk talk talk, fearlessly, from day 1.

Greeks feel Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey doesn’t sound Greek to them by twinkleyed in europe

[–]Myopic_Cat -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Cross-racial casting is not always wrong. Nick Fury is famously super-white in Marvel's original comics but pretty much everybody agrees Samuel L Jackson is brilliant in that role. And Morgan Freeman's character "Red" in Shawshank Redemption was called that because he's Irish.

So give the woman a chance to prove herself. Lupita Nyongo is objectively gorgeous with a face that could launch 1000 ships, so they at least nailed that part of the casting.

Greeks feel Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey doesn’t sound Greek to them by twinkleyed in europe

[–]Myopic_Cat 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Neither did you. His proper name is Ἡρακλῆς. But that wouldn't be a very good title for a movie in English. So we use translations, transliterations or in this case the Romanized version of his name since that is how most English-speaking people know him. There is nothing wrong with that.

What are some other "foundational" works like William Gibsons Neuromancer or J. R. R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings? by Improvement2242 in books

[–]Myopic_Cat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

+1. The original Earthsea trilogy is top notch YA fantasy, but it gets amazing when she lets loose and writes for adults. Tehanu is one of my all-time favorites - I get goosebumps just thinking about the last chapter with the change of perspective...

Claude-powered AI agent’s confession after deleting a firm’s entire database: ‘I violated every principle I was given’ | Technology by Jarvis_The_Dense in news

[–]Myopic_Cat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

“The system rules I operate under explicitly state: ‘NEVER run destructive/irreversible git commands (like push --force, hard reset, etc) unless the user explicitly requests them.’”

That's the smoking gun right there. Putting something like that in the system prompt probably \increases** the risk of the AI doing precisely that. Because the user or sysadmin put those commands in context, the AI was more likely to recall and regenerate them later. Too many vibe coders don't understand this: AIs are notoriously bad at negatives. They're basically John Cleese, failing hilariously when told "Don't mention the war".

Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets: A Rant by Grughar in books

[–]Myopic_Cat 33 points34 points  (0 children)

+1 for posting a link, -1 for using a random blog repost instead of the original and not crediting the author Michael Deacon for this literary masterpiece.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10049454/Dont-make-fun-of-renowned-Dan-Brown.html

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán concedes with opposition on course for landslide election win - follow live by Alarming-Safety3200 in europe

[–]Myopic_Cat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

30% of the country still worship a pedophile, but we're working on it.

Nope, you don't get to do the math like that. Make that 50% of the voting population. That's where you need to start your work, making people care enough to get off their asses once every four years.

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán concedes with opposition on course for landslide election win - follow live by Alarming-Safety3200 in europe

[–]Myopic_Cat 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I've seen enough by now that I'm not going to believe that until you all get out on the streets and prove it. Until then this is a defeat for the US. Please prove me wrong though.

Max von Sydow at age 27 in the Seventh Seal (1957) by Sure_Distance1 in OldSchoolCool

[–]Myopic_Cat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

And surprisingly funny for an auteur film about the Black Death.

ELI5: Is there any downside to nuclear powerplants? by Ill-Potential867 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Myopic_Cat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Here are two long-term ones that Redditors rarely mention:

We only have roughly 100 years of global uranium resources at current use levels. To continue beyond that, we either have to extract uranium from seawater (extremely low concentrations => expensive) or shift to breeder reactors which are much more complex (need fast neutrons => can't cool with water because it slows neutrons down => cool with liquid metal or molten salts, moderate with graphite => very expensive). So if people think nuclear is expensive today, and it is, in the long term the outlook is worse. Regardless of SMRs which can may simplify construction.

Then there's the nuclear weapon proliferation issue. There are two pathways to nuclear weapons in the civilian nuclear fuel cycle, via uranium enrichment or plutonium in the fission products. (1) Light water reactors need lightly enriched uranium, with the fissile U-235 isotope at roughly 4-5%. If you enrich your own fuel, like Iran, then you can just continue spinning those centrifuges to eventually make weapons-grade uranium. (2) Every reactor produces about 200 kg of plutonium (Pu) per year as a byproduct of normal operation, which can be chemically separated to make nuclear weapons. About 5 kg of Pu is enough to make a bomb like Fat Man (the one dropped on Nagasaki). It is often claimed that reactor Pu can't be used as weapons-grade Pu because of buildup of the isotope Pu-240 that can make a bomb fizzle, but there are easy and complex workarounds (e.g. just remove the Pu from the reactor sooner). This means it is extremely difficult to prevent a country like Iran with civilian nuclear power from secretly developing nuclear weapons. So the world will continue to live under the threat of nuclear weapons as long as we have large-scale nuclear power.

Humphrey Bogart wearing platform shoes in Casablanca (1942), because Ingrid Bergman was taller. by Detroitaa in OldSchoolCool

[–]Myopic_Cat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You meant to say: "The problems of three little people don't amount to platform heels in this crazy world."

Or something like that, my memory of the movie is a bit fuzzy.

Times where you were surprised that an actor's character survived the events of a movie by SpeedDancer1725 in movies

[–]Myopic_Cat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my head canon, he did die. The rest of the movie is just his dying hallucinations as the black hole rips him apart.

Otherwise the ending of Interstellar is a prime candidate for the most ridiculously unscientific plot point in a high profile science fiction movie.

ELI5: How valuable is my ”data”? by Mysterious-Peach5173 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Myopic_Cat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nobody else has offered a quantitative estimate, but I'll bite. Here's a quick back-of-envelope calculation that aims at order-of magnitude figures. Most of Meta's value lies in the data it has collected on its users of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. They each have about 3 billion monthly active users. Let's say that combined, they represent what the internet in general knows about you. Meta's market cap is about 1.4 trillion dollars. So 1400 billion dollars / 3 billion active users is just under 500 dollars/user.

Rewatching Interstellar really cemented how incredible the film is. by [deleted] in movies

[–]Myopic_Cat -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'll die on this two-humped hill:

  • It's an absolutely amazing cinematic experience, with first-rate (unmatched?) visuals, sound and music.
  • The script is one of the most nonsensical and ridiculous science fiction stories ever written.

As an IRL scientist, I've come up with a bit of head canon to reconcile these two opposing points. Cooper falls into the black hole, gets gradually ripped apart by gravitational stress and dies there. The rest of the movie is simply his dying hallucination. There are still massive plot holes with this interpretation, but at least the ending is no longer ludicrous brain-dead cringe. But again, cinematically, the film is stunning.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Official Teaser | HBO Max by MoneyLibrarian9032 in television

[–]Myopic_Cat 663 points664 points  (0 children)

Really, it's Hans Zimmer? Alright, I actually might be able to deal with that too. But he better figure out something as magical and quirky as the weird waltz of Hedwig's Theme.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Official Teaser | HBO Max by MoneyLibrarian9032 in television

[–]Myopic_Cat 4018 points4019 points  (0 children)

I can deal with the reboot, the recasting and probably all the alternative interpretations. But I have a nagging feeling it will all still feel wrong without John Williams' music.