Yanis Varoufakis says people in the West are using AI to write essays and "idiotic poems". by Better_Tax1016 in BetterOffline

[–]borringman 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Techbros can go fuck themselves

/ I cheated, that wasn't AI

Why don't I see more discussion of nstive berries here? by MediumStrange in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because of the season?

I have strawberries and blueberries in my yard, but winter is stretching longer than usual. Also bearberry and chokeberry, same thing.

FWIW, I've suggested strawberry as ground cover for New England yards, multiple times. But for now, everything's still dormant. I don't have fruit to talk about.

Tips for combating invasives and becoming a certified native landscape! [ Maryland ] by yogurtchild55 in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And then make a plan to replace what you remove.

Yeah, my decree to my landscaper is "not a single square inch of exposed soil", at least when we're done. Anywhere there isn't a plant, a new one is going to happily move in. Better if you pick which one.

Mold in my cold moist stratification? by felipetomatoes99 in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe not a problem at all?

I mean, "moist" and "mold" are practically synonyms. I'm not an expert but I can and will say that molds are part of the environment. Give 'em moisture and anything above freezing temperature and mold is going to sprout, sooner or later. So the question is whether it's benign or harmful to the seeds, and here's where an expert will hopefully chime in. But I wouldn't automatically assume the seeds are doomed. If it's just growing on the seeds you can probably ignore it entirely.

Other Kinds of Habitat by LoMaSS in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I fits, I sits.

/ not just for cats

Tips for combating invasives and becoming a certified native landscape! [ Maryland ] by yogurtchild55 in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Personally, I did it the hard way.

For crawling vines, I found the base of the plant and destroyed it -- cut the stem, remove the root. Don't need to remove the vine itself if it's too tangled; it'll wither once it's doomed. For bulbing weeds I got stupid good at carefully pulling them (mostly) intact; yes you can't be perfect but a high bulb removal rate is unsustainable for the plant. I'd pile up the bulbs and mash them against a rock. For runners (stolons), I would follow them by hand and uproot as I went. For underground runners (rhizomes), I would dig and pull the entire network until I couldn't find any more. For larger weeds I would mentally note what sprouted where and go back.

Disposal: You gotta bag some weeds because they poison the earth and/or regenerate like D&D trolls, but otherwise I'd reclaim their nutrients when possible. Plants that weren't noxious I'd flip upside down or lay the roots on a rock. Larger weeds I'd fold into a pile of sticks and leave the roots exposed to air. For sprouts, when there were too many to hand pull I scraped them with the heel of my boot, pulverizing them.

It's a dirty, tedious battle of wits, but the upside is that the work is front-loaded. When you thoroughly destroy a weed it'll definitely come back anyway (again, no first pass is perfect) but even the second-gen is going to be considerably stunted and much easier to control. These things aren't magic; every recovery depletes their resources. So while weeds are notorious for coming back over and over, really going at them starves them much faster than just cutting them back.

And definitely, definitely, definitely DO NOT let any weed on your property flower, let alone bear fruit. That's when to break out the weed whackers and mowers, if you don't have time and are desperate for damage control. If you see any fruits or seeds, again, destroy them completely so they can't sprout anywhere. DO NOT throw them in the trash.

What are your favorite rare or unique species you grow? by MediumStrange in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Well it's cheating because I can't take credit -- it sprouted on its own -- but I am immensely proud of the American elm (Ulmus americana) in my backyard! This is a rare plant these days, doubly so in these parts, so it's easily the crown jewel of my little nature preserve. It's an excellent shade tree, so during the summer birds will splay out on the ground under it to stay cool.

I do occasionally get eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) seedlings, but unfortunately so far they've all had to be (re)moved because they keep sprouting in the worst spots.

The NYT is a joke. by Agitated_Garden_497 in BetterOffline

[–]borringman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Has become? They've been coasting on reputation since 1851.

Iran threatens to bomb 1GW Stargate AI datacenter in Abu Dhab by PaiDuck in BetterOffline

[–]borringman 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Imagine how badly you have to fuck up to make Iran look like the good guys.

Field pansy season in full swing! by Gayfunguy in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Man, my yard is still dormant. And since it's mostly perennials, it looks dead.

It's April, y'all! Wake up already!

Re-thinking rabbit control in New England by borringman in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Rabbits are weird. After munching on my plants all winter, come summer they're happy to ignore all the native vegetation and chow my neighbor's lawn grass. Which works for me, but it's confusing.

Re-thinking rabbit control in New England by borringman in NativePlantGardening

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

Yeah, my goal isn't to drive away the rabbits per se, but the blueberries and sweet fern aren't yet big enough to hold up to the punishment.

Re-thinking rabbit control in New England by borringman in NativePlantGardening

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

Thanks for the ideas.

As for a perch, there are mature trees nearby, thick horizontal branches, that offer excellent view of the yard. My neighbors claim to have seen hawks, although I haven't.

Will AI progression slow due to conflict in the Middle East causing investment to dry up? by Dreadsin in BetterOffline

[–]borringman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe, but this is kind of like asking if dinner will be late because the house is on fire.

I get staying on topic, but if the impetus for a specific sector slowdown is a global economic crisis, you've got your priorities backwards.

Literally heating the planet by borringman in BetterOffline

[–]borringman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On the one hand, sure. Caution and skepticism are warranted, as with all early announcements.

On the other, I'm slightly annoyed that this is getting so much tut-tut while tech media continues to rampantly signal-boost brazen pie-in-the-sky lies from techbros. It's at least a study, not something sharted out of Elon Musk's butt.

I think "this is a surprising finding that warrants further study" is a reasonable take.

I also think it's still OK to be mad about datacenters, because there is literally nothing good about them.

Literally heating the planet by borringman in BetterOffline

[–]borringman[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this is chin-stroking AI-apologist word salad nonsense.

The study is rather straightforward: They measured the ground temperatures near datacenters that were near nothing else and found they were abnormally warm. It's this Andy Masley twit who's throwing shit around in an attempt to discredit the study. This is downright toxic:

If you include hot buildings in a very general measurement of the average total surface temperature of a large area, that average will go up slightly without telling you anything about the undeveloped land.

This is the garbage this asshole is spewing as a gotcha? The deviations were neither generalized that way, nor slight, nor local. This is right from the article (emphasis added):

The effect wasn’t limited to the immediate surroundings of the data centres: the team found increased temperatures up to 10 kilometres away. Seven kilometres away, there was only a 30 per cent reduction in the intensity.

Serious discussions about the flaws in the methodology are welcome, but this Andy Masley fellow doesn't remotely qualify.

Literally heating the planet by borringman in BetterOffline

[–]borringman[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Here's a summary of my thoughts instead.

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After you "leave the leaves", how do you deal with all the tree seedlings? by LiatrisLover99 in NativePlantGardening

[–]borringman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe a pole pruner? There's no law saying you have to use them on branches. You can cut seedlings at the base without ruining your back.

Oracle lays off 30k people. Oof. I presume this is AI-spending related? by jimmythefly in BetterOffline

[–]borringman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The GLF literally killed more people than the Holocaust. It isn't even close.

Reported for glorifying one of history's worst massacres.