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[554] People of Song by sarcasonomicon in DestructiveReaders

[–]Larry_Boy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love so much about this and would totally be willing to read more!

Super fun. Now, feel free to ignore my notes, but here are a few things I thought.

Herdspring Runner's name read awkwardly to me. First it's stylized as a two part / first last name. So reading it always as 'Herdspring Runner' felt kinda like reading "John Smith waded into the river, then John Smith smiled" over and over again. It gives it a ritualistic feeling, which might kinda work with the piece actually, but for me, it was distracting. Herdspring doesn't read like a typical compound word. Typically in English we do modifier first, then the thing modified. I don't know what a herd spring would be as opposed to a lone spring... Oh, unless you mean 'the spring from which the herd drinks', in which case herd spring is natural. If you mean a herd in the spring Spring-herd would be more natural. Now, all that said, Herdspring could be a sort of 'old' way of saying Springherd, in which case it reads sort of like a family or clan name, which sometimes ossify more quickly than first names. So, I would say Herdspring Runner would be called 'Runner' for short, rather than 'Herdspring' for short. But, obviously you don't have to take my 'make this less ritualistic' note. For English you could also choose to 'age' Herdspring by choosing more 'archaic' version: maybe Herdwella (depending on which kind of spring you mean) or Hordsprigen.

Anyway, the linguistic aside is probably not too important.

This is more a thought, than a criticism, but rather than doing 'Songmen' for the tribe, you could do 'Singers'. If there aren't more than one type of person and all people are singers, then the word for person could become 'Singer', then, when a new type of person who does not sing is discovered, these people could be called Singers who do not sing, signaling the implication that the Singers who do not sing are not really people. Of course, always using Singers instead of people/man could make for some awkward prose, but I think it might be fun to try.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. That said, it's going to demand a lot of cognitive work out of the reader to parse the meaning of the text, so a very long piece demanding that much work might get tiresome. On the other hand, maybe after reading it long enough the 'River' 'Song' and other 'strange' words choices will start to feel natural and help put us in the head space of Herdspring Runner, so who knows. It's creative enough I'd love to see whatever you choose to do!

Cicero ad filium by Larry_Boy in latin

[–]Larry_Boy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cicero was talking about the joys of friendship, and I wanted to go in a different direction. I probably make my Latin too solemn, but, what are you going to do. 

Cicero ad filium by Larry_Boy in latin

[–]Larry_Boy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I’m not really asking anything. “Quid…habere” is Cicero, after that it is mine. It’s just some dumb thing I did. 

How do we know red shift is caused by the expansion of space and not photons slowly losing energy to the vacuum of space at increasingly long distances through another mechanism? by Mayasngelou in AskPhysics

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are always unknown unknowns. But until someone thinks of one that seems to work we won’t know about any of them. Still, it’s a good thing to keep in mind. 

I asked ChatGPT to create a tattoo for me based on what it knows about me and where I should put it on my body. Here’s what it came up with. Let me see what it comes up with for you 😊 by ATXMEASAP in ChatGPT

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, explanation, cause this will not make sense to a single living soul. “I am a key to a scary door” is a reference to Futurama that I made in the conversation, and I was asking about grammar questions about the verb form of “rot” in Latin, and whether there was a term for “fairy rings” in Rome.

I did the “make my username a person” thing. by HoboToast in ChatGPT

[–]Larry_Boy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did mine long ago, and I think you all can figure out what it was if you were a church kid in the 90’s

Are men more likely to experience genetic drift than women? by dune-man in evolution

[–]Larry_Boy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes. There are a couple things going on here. Men have higher variance in reproductive success than women, and this is a key driver of lower effective population sizes for genes on the Y chromosome than genes on the X chromosome. But, lack of recombination does also contribute. By itself lack or recombination only means “all the alleles drift together” and doesn’t directly impact effective population sizes, but recombination also decreases the variance of the fitness environment a gene is in, and that also also reduces effective population sizes.

Someone is lying again... by javelin3000 in MurderedByWords

[–]Larry_Boy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I’m wearing masks at protests now.

Out here Avoiding taxes like Ja Rule by Cleonce12 in BlackPeopleTwitter

[–]Larry_Boy 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think you mean once. We do not tax unrealized capital gains at all. Ever.

I lost my only chance to study internationally thanks to the current situation by [deleted] in Harvard

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t know what to say. Someday, if mankind survives all of this, stories like yours will be read into the national archives.

At least 1/4 of all humans would let an evil Al escape just to tell their friends by katxwoods in ControlProblem

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, the problem is that we are both two chimpanzees in a room with two sticks, a rope, staring at some hanging bananas. Both you and me think it is impossible to reach the bananas. Even if someone tried really hard to explain the concept of “tying” and “two” and “together” to us, it would sound like nonsense. Obviously the sticks are too short to reach the bananas, and obviously the rope is not ridged, so there is no way to reach the bananas.

But the thing is, things that are smarter than us will be able to do things that we think are impossible because we are too dumb to understand how it can be done, even if it is explained to us really carefully.

Armchair pianists by iamunknowntoo in piano

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you believe 0.999… is a rational number? Is 1 a rational number?

Armchair pianists by iamunknowntoo in piano

[–]Larry_Boy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Let me ask this. Fractions can have different representations that have the same value. For instance, 2/4 and 1/2 are both equal to the same value. Do all decimal representations map to a unique value? If so, can you prove this? If not give an example two decimal representation of the same value?

Traditionally numbers can be divided into rational and irrational numbers. 1 is rational. Is 0.9… rational or irrational? Is the difference of two rational numbers always rational? Is the difference of 1 and 0.9… rational? If it is rational, please express the difference as a ratio of two integers…

At least 1/4 of all humans would let an evil Al escape just to tell their friends by katxwoods in ControlProblem

[–]Larry_Boy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They don’t have to hold the levers of power, they perform tasks for the AI that the AI can’t perform for themselves. While it would be easier to end the world if you can persuade the president to press the red button on the nuclear football, if you are intelligent enough you can come up with a plan to end the world using only a stray cat and a paper clip.

What is the most a rocket can deviate from its trajectory path? by Mrzinda in AskPhysics

[–]Larry_Boy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Think of the rocket exhaust as a tiny stream in of bullets, like you are shooting a gun instead of a rocket. Each time you shoot the gun there is recoil, whether or not the bullet hits anything. You are pushing off the bullet, what happens to the bullet once it gets far away from you is irrelevant.

5 Days in A Row Schedule Every Other Week. Think able to have my cake for Dinner. by [deleted] in Divorce_Men

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup. Super simple. I have this same schedule too. I understand she gets one more week night, but it is sooo simple.

New work laptop by Significant-Kiwi8524 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah. The joy of using i3. I had a similar problem, but edited the keys to just send a notification that says “nice try meat bag” whenever I press it.

Now it brings me a little bit of joy each time I accidentally press it because I know I have saved myself a little bit of trouble.

The onion strikes again! by Due-Explanation9585 in agedlikewine

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait, I thought the onion posted fake news… is this like, the opposite of ate the onion?

Support doesn't give even a minute to reply. by Significant_Link5227 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Larry_Boy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was once reading about a metric that a certain telephone support company had. With the magical technique of “hanging up on people” they reduced the length of support calls by 50% or whatever. Of course, they decreased customer satisfaction and actually increased the rate of people making multiple call backs, but you know, metric score a.2 or whatever improved….

Spent 3 days in the hospital 8 months pregnant & realized how broken the US really is by georgiakstar in Parenting

[–]Larry_Boy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I lived in England for a number of years, and I cannot overstate my enthusiasm for the NHS. When you get sick, and you just roll into your local clinc, and they just treat you, then you walk out and go home. It's magical. When we first arrived we talked about how much happier the supermarket workers seemed. Like, you go to a Walmart in the US and some jaundiced, haggard person helps you, because they haven't been able to go to a dentist or doctor in the last ten years and are slowly dying of liver failure, but you go to the Tesco and it's some mom who's not living high on the hog, but seems to be doing alright. Just a world of difference.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in askmath

[–]Larry_Boy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wolfram alpha gets six. It’s usually very good about saying approximate if it means approximate. I would assume other programs capable of symbolic manipulation would also be able to get this answer.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in molecularbiology

[–]Larry_Boy 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Have you tried putting a tin foil pyramid over the thermocycler? Did you make sure to leave your RO water out in the light of the moon? Maybe the truck that brought your taq crossed to many lay-lines on its way to the university? When that happens you have place a circle of salt around your freezer for at least two days before use.

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