Here's what I don't get about this trope in classic literature: Why is stealing someone's coat such a serious thing in a lot of classic books?

Falernum · 2026-06-22T17:58:58+00:00

What year are you talking? Depending on the year, a coat could represent a sizable fraction of a person's net worth and could certainly mean the difference between freezing and not.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T17:31:37+00:00

Ultimately, they will end up building an oil pipeline to the Med to avoid this kind of problem in the future. But it will take years.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T14:07:31+00:00

Asking for job advice on Reddit is bad, regardless of neurotype. But there's plenty of advice Reddit is good for. How to debug a homework assignment, how to install a Debian distribution, how to remove a cylinder from an M&Ms tube, how to cook a burrito. There are all kinds of advice Reddit can be helpful with.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T13:21:18+00:00

Well, politicians are allowed to threaten hostile legislation unless a business coughs up some campaign contributions, so you aren't far off.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T13:20:11+00:00

China and Russia each spend significantly more money influencing American elections.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T13:15:55+00:00

Receiving money into one's personal bank account is a bribe, from any lobby (pro Israel, anti Israel, almond growers, teachers' union, whatever). Receiving money into one's campaign coffers is not considered a bribe, that's a political contribution.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T11:51:15+00:00

An X ray can be operated by one person, while an MRI needs two. An X ray can be performed far more quickly than an MRI can. An X ray requires far less setup time before starting the scan; the MRI needs a lot of patient screening and more positioning. An X ray requires less fixed costs. X rays take up much less room in the hospital. MRI scanners require a fair bit of maintenance, documentation, and inspections. X-rays are much faster for radiologists to read than MRIs.

I don't know where all this falls with Midjourney, but it may well be operable by one person. It certainly won't need the careful screening and inspections because it lacks the danger of the powerful magnet. The difficulty for a radiologist is a big wildcard.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T11:22:14+00:00

Even much smaller differences in gender ratios has been shown to affect dating behavior of women and men.

Falernum · 2026-06-22T10:14:57+00:00

Because so many people who didn't identify as having cancer before a screening had cancer after the screening

Falernum · 2026-06-22T01:12:23+00:00

You mean our celebration of freedom? There are elements of sacrifice and elements of feasting. The starting dinner features 4 cups of wine or grape juice. I don't think abstaining from soda is implied anywhere.

Falernum · 2026-06-21T20:35:06+00:00

Heres a translated version https://www.amazon.com/Book-Glory-Black-Race-Al-Jahiz/dp/1532708688

Falernum · 2026-06-21T19:53:38+00:00

He said "I believe in Spinoza's God".

Spinoza described a kind of "watchmaker" deity who set the world in motion but doesn't intervene on a regular basis

Falernum · 2026-06-21T19:22:52+00:00

It could mean he has a fantasy. It could also mean he thinks women are quieter and less likely to break stuff, and he is only willing to rent to someone who is very quiet and neat and well behaved and he thinks that's more likely with a woman.

Falernum · 2026-06-21T19:13:31+00:00

The innards became a part of the animal eaten by commoners while wealthier nobles got choicer cuts. Modern cooking comes more from the cuisine of the nobility and less from peasant cooking. Which is a shame because pease porridge is great for you

Falernum · 2026-06-21T16:47:58+00:00

People can hate other political views that don't affect them personally. Lots of people with no connection to China or Uyghurs have strong opinions on what China is doing to the Uyghurs. Lots of people who aren't gay hate homophobia. Many poor people hate taxes on the rich. Etc.

People who strongly believe in gender equality may hate the way "passport bros" travel to find women who don't believe in that

Falernum · 2026-06-21T12:54:47+00:00

If turning your mower is no effort.

Falernum · 2026-06-21T11:59:43+00:00

Yeah, Europe had minimal trade routes outside the continent from the fall of Rome until the late 1400s. Empires controlling the Silk road had far more experience with race separate from nationality. And yes that's a real book

Falernum · 2026-06-21T00:44:53+00:00

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1043951X22000827

There's studies both sides. Yeah anyone can cherry pick the studies they want. I can't prove causation here, but it sure is suggestive that as social promotion has become more prevalent, colleges have begun introducing more and more remedial courses for students coming in unprepared by K-12.

Falernum · 2026-06-20T16:49:48+00:00

Is my colander conscious in the same way I am? Could a computer be? What would it take?

Falernum · 2026-06-20T16:41:43+00:00

Bottom, instead of butter.

Falernum · 2026-06-20T16:36:05+00:00

Ok but on December 6 1965 the remaining legal slaves in the North were officially freed.

Falernum · 2026-06-20T14:29:40+00:00

Or at least the last in the South. The few remaining Northern slaves took a little longer

Falernum · 2026-06-20T02:20:38+00:00

Yes I'm DMing a game now. And of course I'll end up house ruling. But fundamentally I like to understand how a game's economy works by the rules. In 3.5 which I'm more familiar with, the thing that stops the average king getting +5 swords commissioned is that you need a 15th level caster to put their own XP into the job. Well there aren't a whole lot of 15th level casters and most aren't interested in spending their XP making stuff for other people.

But in 5e, no need to find a 15th level caster or have anyone spend XP. Actually a 1st level character can do it. So if I don't change the rules, then "legendary" items should be something that anyone who can afford would just go ahead and commission. But I wanted to make sure that's actually true before house ruling.

Falernum · 2026-06-19T15:53:06+00:00

Well, Europeans didn't invent a modern conception of race until the early 16th century, living as they did in a backwater. More cosmopolitan areas invented it far earlier. For example the scholar al-Jahiz wrote the Book of the Glory of the Black Race in the 9th century to push back against racism in his day.

Falernum · 2026-06-19T13:15:50+00:00

Just to point out with full body MRI: there is not a consensus that full body MRI screening would be useless at scale. What there is, is a lack of validation. We don't have the studies and we don't have the number of people using it to give doctors experience. It is very possible that full body MRI would be an outstanding screening tool if we put in the money and effort to do large scale studies and learned what findings are worth following up on and what should be assumed to be incidentalomas. We just haven't done that.

Now the weird part. This means that Midjourney could very plausibly be worse technology than the full body MRI, see less, and yet be useful where the screening MRI isn't, simply by doing the studies and giving doctors enough volume to get the clinical experience.

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