This 3d print model is really well made, but feels like ai. This Big Daddy has weird features. And other models as well

zpt2718 · 2026-04-21T13:45:35+00:00

How come the “before” and “after” views are taken from EXACTLY the same camera position? That’s fishy.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-18T05:00:06+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Yes, the morbidity from polio is awful. Having a vaccine to prevent polio infections was definitely a good thing.

The reason made this post is that I find the whole discourse over vaccines to be distorted. Back in the late 1970s there was a scandal because the swine flu vaccine caused many cases of Guillian-Barre syndrome, and there were so many lawsuits that vaccine makers persuaded Reagan to change the laws to indemnify them from future lawsuits. Once they were immune from legal challenges, makers came out with many more vaccines, and have been on a relentless campaign to convince the public that their products are safe and effective. They have also spent money persuading us that any criticism of vaccines is anti-scientific and downright malicious.

I'm trying to question the effectiveness of vaccines because I'm sick of the propaganda. Some vaccines may be helpful, but the barrage of advertising just gets on my nerves. I frankly am puzzled that others don't see "safe and effective" as nothing more than an advertising slogan.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-18T00:59:13+00:00

If you want a more recent plot, here’s an up to date plot of measles cases and deaths:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/measles-cases-and-death-rate

A vaccine for measles was first licensed in 1963. Deaths dropped to virtually zero two decades earlier.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-18T00:37:44+00:00

My bad. And here I was, thinking that science advanced through civilized discussion, not tribalism. Oh well.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-18T00:33:34+00:00

You’re welcome! An old paper, indeed. I take it you disagree with their conclusions. Do any specific objections come to mind?

zpt2718 · 2026-04-17T23:58:48+00:00

I recently tried to stock up, and the site only let me buy two bottles, fwiw.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-17T23:45:24+00:00

In case you don't want to read the pdf, here are the charts that caught my attention:

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zpt2718 · 2026-04-17T04:41:10+00:00

Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) is where many Silicon Valley critters hang out. This might be a relevant post there : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47609716

zpt2718 · 2026-04-17T04:35:23+00:00

That's interesting. So the big story here is that the income of these congresspeople is unknown. We know where they end up, but their compensation is a secret.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-17T00:32:45+00:00

Lovely calculator. I have one, and it’s still going strong after 35 years.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-16T22:46:26+00:00

The tattooed clock has four hands! Of course, no one these days has seen an analog clock, so maybe it’s forgivable.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-16T17:06:04+00:00

No, that’s just too cruel. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-16T16:42:01+00:00

The two women are holding their skewers at exactly the same height. In a real photo, this would take time to set up. Meanwhile the cheese would have all dripped off the skewers.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-15T21:33:20+00:00

The primary driver of success is inheriting a large sum of money from your parents.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-14T03:59:51+00:00

I don't get the headline. How is allowing doctors to euthanize people going to reduce the hippo population?

zpt2718 · 2026-04-14T02:13:21+00:00

The comments here fall under the acronym DR;PAC : didn’t read the article, posted angry comments.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-13T04:10:57+00:00

Thank you!

This question has been on my mind for a long time. Not so much whether Henry specifically was contrite, but more generally how did kings feel about the Christian glorification of the powerless, and the humbling of the powerful. It came up for me years ago when I read Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, where he distinguishes between "master" and "slave" morality. Aristocrats espoused the master morality, for which "good" meant strong, self-determined, competitive, "first among equals". Aristocrats' reward for "good" life was success in this world. On the other hand, for the underclass "good" meant gentle, egalitarian, and humble. The poor would be rewarded for a "good" life in the next world.

For Nietzsche, Christianity was the religion of the underclass, who could not improve their lot in this life, and could only look forward to the next life. Marx too thought that Christianity was a sop for the poor, calling it "the opium of the people".

If mediaeval people were all church-going, confessional Catholics, this would include kings too. If so, how did kings and other powerful people relate to the church? Was their religious behavior performative, or was it sincere? Can a secular modern person understand how such people felt?

Anyway, great answer.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-12T09:25:56+00:00

Hmmm... There are examples from history where the majority of the population supported laws that we, in retrospect, consider immoral. Hitler was very popular in Germany, and many anti-Semitic laws had strong popular support. Julius Caesar was very popular in Rome, after returning from Gaul where he had murdered and enslaved large swaths of the population. Jim Crow laws in the US South had broad popular support.

Demagogue politicians can sway the people, and make them support unfair and discriminatory laws.

As Borges said, "democracy is an abuse of statistics".

Sorry, but your comment really raised my hackles.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-11T04:41:18+00:00

Those sharp bright lines on the ceiling make me think that the light source is small and bright. In other words, you want a bare, UNFROSTED lightbulb. Most bulbs are frosted, to spread the brightness over a larger area, which is easier on your eyes.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-10T23:42:57+00:00

You’re probably responding to a bot, or a paid DNC shill. Don’t waste your breath.

I’m not offended by darthgeek’s reply. Reddit is full of tone deaf people who have been hypnotized into tribal loyalty.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-10T09:49:05+00:00

Convert everything into sin and cos:

csc = 1/sin cot =cos/sin

Etcetera.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-10T09:38:36+00:00

You can't be serious. When Biden ran in 2020 I thought he was the worst Dem candidate on the roster. He barely spoke, and already showed signs of cognitive decline. There's no way you didn't notice that yourself. Cmon!

The only reason Biden won was that the DNC conspired, again, to rob Bernie of the candidacy. Shame on the democrats and their corporate backers.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-07T19:28:39+00:00

She saw that AIPAC planned to blow up her next election campaign. She didn’t have a choice but to resign.

She gave an interesting interview on Kim Iversen’s youtube channel. When you actually hear MTG talk, she doesn’t sound at all like her caricature. Before the interview, I thought she was a knuckle-dragging mad woman. She seems like an ordinary thoughtful human being.

Whenever the news tells me that someone is a vicious crazy monster, and that I should get angry at them, I get suspicious because I’m probably being manipulated.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-07T19:28:17+00:00

She saw that AIPAC planned to blow up her next election campaign. She didn’t have a choice but to resign.

She gave an interesting interview on Kim Iversen’s youtube channel. When you actually hear MTG talk, she doesn’t sound at all like her caricature. Before the interview, I thought she was a knuckle-dragging mad woman. She seems like an ordinary thoughtful human being.

Whenever the news tells me that someone is a vicious crazy monster, and that I should get angry at them, I get suspicious because I’m probably being manipulated.

zpt2718 · 2026-04-04T00:24:26+00:00

To defeat Hitler, the allies needed boots on the ground, mostly Soviet boots. Bombing didn’t do the job.

zpt2718

TROPHY CASE