Destabilizing “the west” and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. Look at the pandemic… Soon there will be toil about defensive measurements and expenses. The economy wont like a chronic war threat either. Putin just has to move Russia’s troops every now and then.
Idk. No one I knew was an outspoken racist in school. Especially these days, teenagers seem to be very aware of these issues. Regardless, it’s not the only thing pointed out here. With the original comment it paints a different story than outcry for the sake of outcry.
This article rubs me the wrong way. The headline isn’t well supported by its content, as the article drifts off to cheery picking counter arguments debunking lab-origin conspiracy theories. And a whole lot of questionable references to other idiotic conspiracy narratives.
Considering the natural origin hypothesis hasn’t been proven yet, mixing up skeptics with conspi nuts feels disingenuous, rhetorically targeting emotions and identity. I don’t think there is a huge overlap with those considering gain of function research as possible origin, with your typical death-by-5G, antivax flatearther, or climate denialist. Downright dismissing a lab origin, when really both ways are completely possible, feels patronizing and not scientific at all. I also don’t think someone who thinks about the FCS is likely to shoot a researcher on their way home. Or listens to Trumps bullshit, for that matter.
Not everyone thinks SARS2 is a bio weapon designed by Bill Gates. To me however, the mere possibility of a lab origin influences my opinion on gain of function research and legislation, and that should be the real discourse here IMO. Attributing this to China really is beside the point and realistically “impossible knowledge“ considering the extent of a possible liability issue at hand, anyway. The xenophobic attacks started right from the start, when Trump rallied against “the China virus” instead of taking action against its spread. No one, but Biontech and virologists were concerned about the genome of the virus back then.
The article didn't downright dismiss it. In fact the author took pains to mention that conspiratorial thinking, of which it lists many non-fringe examples, slows down legitimate inquiry into the dangers of gain of function research.
If you care about whether or not the virus is zoonotic in origin that takes time. It still hasn't been done for ebola. In the meantime saying we think it's China let's investigate China specifically is looking for data in support of a hypothesis and not the other way around.
That's terrible ergonomics and you will grow a hunch. One day you will notice in the mirror and your consequent attempts to straighten your neck will fail. Laptops are such a legacy format, we only endure because we're denied power-/useful tablets, which would be much more flexible ergonomics-wise.
I have a ten year old X220 with an SSD upgrade.... I don't have to wait for anything really, either. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a difference, but... is it a 2000$ difference?
This is about snappiness only, I have no trouble finding workloads stressing this old i5 (e.g. 2k/4k videos), where an M1 would fly through. Personally, I just think snappiness alone is a bit forced argument to spent 2k$.
Build quality is probably night and day. An old thinkpad is going to be clunky and made of cheap plastic. A modern $2000 ultra book is going to be slim and made of metal or other high quality materials, it will be pleasant to type on, to look at, and it will have a reasonable trackpad size by modern standards.
When this is your main tool, it’s much more pleasant to use something with a nice build quality.
Thinkpads typically have magnesium cases, not plastic, and the older models have rollcages so they can take a beating like no other. I have an m1 air and while it feels sturdy, I have no doubt that X220 can withstand much more abuse than my macbook. Also, I have no doubt the X220 is more pleasant to type on, because older thinkpads have keyboards that have no equal in the laptop space. I would say my macbook has a satisfactory keyboard, but it is clearly a step down from the T series thinkpad it replaced. Still though, the macbook is for me overall the better package than any thinkpad that was in my budget range.
Keyboard is unmatched indeed, but my nipple mechanic is worn now and the trackpad is atrocious. I am not defending this machine, it is 10 years old, the CPU is a major limitation now. I bought it refurbished for 240€ in 2015, so I had a "single use" laptop for a trip... Became my main machine for years to follow. The low price point is one of the best features, as I am not constantly worried about it. Also the original spill resistance saved my ass two times. Oh yeah and SSD and RAM upgrade took me literally 5 minutes. Ridiculous. Almost disappointing as a DIY project.
Tho, I suspect it will perform much, much better cleaned, repaired and thermal-paste reapplied. But I wont open it, as long as I have no alternative set up.
(Also M1 + Linux, would be a no-brainer for me - best bang for the buck right now. I just fucking hate Apple OSs and the ecosystem. Oh and the keyboard too - feels as pleasant an ATM's number pad... Following Asahi closely, still.)
Wow, that seems like a steal for 240€. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you need a single use laptop to travel? Also regarding the MacBook keyboards, they’ve completely redesigned them. They were the worst keyboard I’ve ever used from 2016-2019, but the latest models have a brand new keyboard and it’s my favorite laptop keyboard ever, although that’s obviously just personal preference.
"Single-use" may have been the wrong expression. I meant, I needed something that could break, be stolen, or tempered with at the airport, without me losing trust/access to my main work/digital life tool, and without me getting too sad about it.
I try the Macbooks' keyboards every time I see one in the store. Yes, it has been even worse, but the new ones feel clickity-clackity, like an ATM pad, to me too. No travel, and annoying high pitched noises. Feels weird to rest your fingers on those keys. Not even close to a Thinkpad keyboard, old or new. I could get used to it, but it is not a great input device. Not at all. Trackpad rocks of course, but so does the nipple, if you type a lot.
Magnesium? I must be confused then, because the “thinkpad” I was imagining was made of plastic. I’ve definitely felt a magnesium laptop from Microsoft’s surface brand before and that build quality was great.
In terms of durability, the 10 year old ThinkPad will exceed just about any modern laptop. Size/weight is different story though. Just depends on priorities.
Jeez, I explicitly stated my comment was about "snappiness" only. Sure you can move the goalpost, if it makes you happy, but I am not trying to argue a 10 year old Thinkpad, or any laptop that age, is nicer than a recent Macbook. You win, tiger.
Gnome's accessibility feature "larger text" works a bit better than font scaling IMEx. With font scaling often some alignment and spacing seems odd. And you can toggle "larger text" with one click, if you make the accessibility menu permanent.
Tho, if organ donations were opt-out, or even no choice, and the infrastructure to match demand and supply would scale (it does not at the moment), we wouldn't need artificial organs to give this poor man this "high risk investment" and a chance to fight for his life.
Well, maybe in this particular case, an autologus transplant would be much better indeed, as I imagine cancer patients generally don't fare well with suppressed autoimmunity... Then again, no Repo Men visits.
I honestly don't understand why people seek that. Doesn't that sadness and devastation hang with you afterwards?
I gave it a try, but now I am trying to avoid these stories at all costs (thanks for the warning) and firmly believe everything important in life can be told with humor, as well.
1 in 5 people dies of cancer, and usually it sucks, no happy ending. I really, really don't see the need to bring more tragic death into your life than what's likely coming your way, anyway.
Do you "enjoy" the sadness and crying? (Honest question.)
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 48. Went through treatment, got fitter than ever, started running 1/2 marathons, traveled the world, did the Coast to Coast Walk in England, and raised money and opened a library full of resources for cancer patients and their families at the hospital where she worked.
Then 10 years after she was first diagnosed, she had a seizure as she walked into her lab at a new job she just started. If she didn’t speed like a maniac, it might’ve happened as she drove on I-95 and not in one of the best hospitals in the country.
Metastatic brain cancer.
At first, it wasn’t clear how much time she’d have left (if any at all). But she woke up and radiation gave her another decent year before the last 6 months that were pretty awful. Eventually, she fell out of bed, broke her hip, slipped into a coma and died in hospice a week later on Christmas 2012.
Was it a tragedy? I don’t think about it that way.
The ending was happy. She wasn’t in pain and she took such great advantage of the last decade of her life, including that last year when she knew it was really the end.
For me, it's because I want to gain some perspective, and in this case in particular, without experiencing it first hand.
For example, I will often read cancer patient message boards, or family members that have watched their kin succumb to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Or watching old videos, re-mastered with color on youtube from the turn of the 20th century, and contemplating how their entire lives have gone by. Or the uncovered skeletons of people that died from the bubonic plague in the 14th century, and reflect on how they likely had very important personal matters and concerns. But now there they lie, and the world has long since forgotten them. Their names and stories are long gone.
As a recent example, I stumbled across a young women who died of leukemia almost 10 years ago now. She was a local news reporter, and had a youtube channel[1] and twitter account[2]. She unkowningly documented her demise online with her twitter updates. She even interviewed a cancer survivor in one of her youtube videos and said, "how scary it must be when the doctor tells you that you have cancer!". How very soon she would find out herself. Her videos have about a dozen views, and her tweets went largely ignored. She seemed like such a genuinely sweet woman.
It's both morbid curiosity and a grim reminder of indeed how short life is. What was their mindset in their waning time, and why is mine much different? As fast as time seems to go by, am I all that different? Why wait until your death bed to consider your mortality? Maybe it's right around the corner, or maybe not.
I think the deeper perspective with the original article and the book mentioned by parent is a sense of finding fulfillment in life’s struggles rather than just just blanket sadness.. it’s about finding peace or contentment through struggles. In that sense I think it’s a good thing to understand others and how they have found their version of piece through life's struggles. General idea could be group together as logotherapy- finding meaning to life.
Book by nazi encampment survivor and creator of logotherapy: https://www.audible.com/pd/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-Audiobook...?
But would you agree, you don't need that story over and over dressed up differently? Some people have read/seen more than one of those stories.
Man's search for arbitrary meaning (through suffering and such).
I think that's feeding the delusion that life is somehow fair, or balanced, or something, when really life is just cruel sometimes. Maybe that's the appeal. I just cope with it differently, try to laugh it off.
You can't escape sadness. Life is fundamentally about suffering. Even when you're having a good time, you will still feel sad because you know the good times always end, eventually. I think people seek these stories because it helps them deal with their own sadness. What better way to reassure yourself about your own miseries than to hear the miserable stories of others?
> You can't escape sadness. Life is fundamentally about suffering.
Yeah, no shit. That's why I try to not invite it unnecessarily.
> I think people seek these stories because it helps them deal with their own sadness.
I doubt that. I think it's some form of morbid entertainment I don't need, as indicated by other commenters. Emotionality porn or something. Today the sad cancer story, tomorrow FetLife. (Just kidding; no kink-shaming intended.)
I assume most people will continue their life as if they are not going to die ultimately, afterwards. Or at least I am pretty sure there are plenty of people dying of stress-related disease, which at some point in their life read a sad story about death.
Also the abstract sadness, which comes with these stories is very different to what you experience when really sick and worried - when you disassociate (good) and take life by the day.
Maybe. At least I can not switch off easily and those stories stay with me. I also don't like horror movies. Maybe it's more pleasant, or enjoyable, when you feel differently, or "less".
I think that depth has been more widely recognized in neuro-biology before, but has fallen from grace in favor of a naive mechanistic enthusiasm at the beginning of that early neuroimagining euphoria.
You may look into constructivism, especially the biological foundation (e.g. the work of Maturana and Valera). It offers the (somewhat forgotten) hard science link to modern philosophy and psychology, like post-structualism/-modernism and systems theory.
As far as I know, it's not very popular, because it presents a little crisis and is "not very fun"... or at least that's what the criticism comes down to IMO. (I suspect, it's kinda similar to Gödel's assault, but much easier to dismiss.)
