[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 1 week ago

The Martians seem to think that Mars will be like a new colony, with all the "hope" that implies, but it seems to me that colonization was a wretched process for many of the colonists (to say nothing of the people being colonized). Musk is only cheerful about it because he thinks he'll be whipping the slaves rather than working the arid red soil.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Got linked to this UFO sightings timeline in Popbitch today. Thought it looked quite interesting and quite fun. Then I realized the information about individual UFO sightings was being supplied by bloody Co-pilot, and therefore was probably even less accurate than the average UFOlogy treatise.

PS: Does anyone know anything about using Arc-GIS to make maps? I have an assignment due tomorrow and I'm bricking it.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The gist of LivelineJoe is complaining about TFI putting up the taxi fares in Dublin.

The ad is for a TFI competition.

Ciarán works in advertising and thought that the TFI ad must be a scam first because of the use of AI.

Ciarán points out that TFI has plenty of money and could afford to pay a graphic designer or an illustrator.

Joe is furious that TFI won't say whether the ad was AI-generated or not. Ciarán points out that they didn't even mark the image as AI-generated.

Gerry O'Brien from Actors Equity is on the line. He's explaining the issues faced by background actors and voiceover actors who are being pressured into signing over their image/voice rights

Hannah Lockhead from Lucan is on the line. "I don't disagree with what anyone is saying, but personally I think the most offensive thing about this ad is just that it's ugly".

Gerry O'Brien is talking about fair compensation and clear consent for actors whose images are being used.

Hannah says that "Frankenstein's Wife is Margot Robbie"

Ciarán says that the AI art is "quite tacky" and compares poorly with the iconic London Underground logo.

Joe Duffy has seized the opportunity of having Gerry O'Brien on the line to complain that the Abbey Theatre has been closed for a year.

Joe Duffy has asked Hannah Lockhead (who is an actress) "are you working Hannah or are you resting". She's just finished filming a horror film in Wales called Esoteric.

That's pretty much it.

TFI have now apologised.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 1 month ago

You would choose your nationality like you choose your broadband provider.

A famously painless, simple process....

[-] maol@awful.systems 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah there is no land to "acquire" that isn't already important to somebody, and there is no nation you can create without coming into conflict with existing nations or tribes. Terra nullius doesn't exist!

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 2 months ago

The combination of these two things is jarring because heroin is a Big Kid drug, not a prestige drug, and how, of course, could a neuroscientist smoke heroin?

Unlike this guy, I have no problem understanding that smart people sometimes like to do stupid things. There are a lot of doctors who smoke. This is not because they know tobacco is secretly good for you.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 4 months ago

I live in Ireland and these companies keep trying to build data centres here even though they are using way too much of our energy as is :)) From an Irish environmental org:

A few years ago when researching new gas power stations in Ireland, we noticed that many of these developments were being proposed alongside another type of infrastructure: data centres. [...] As of June 2023, there are 82 operational data centres in Ireland, with another 14 under construction. Additionally, 40 data centres have had planning permission approved with another 12 awaiting a decision. [...] Data centres account for 18% of all electricity use in Ireland [...] This is putting unprecedented strain on the electricity grid, with grid operator Eirgrid estimating that data centres may account for up to 27% of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2028. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in Ireland has noted a risk of rolling electricity blackouts...

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

these people said "what if we had a church that was also a country with a monarchy" and then cooked for like 800 years

edit: although I think the actual borders only got defined in like the 20th century?

[-] maol@awful.systems 13 points 6 months ago

Is it an offence against the church for a group of lay theologians to ordain an AI? no idea. It is very funny though

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 10 months ago

Why didn't he calculate how many people are sexually harassed in a community? That seems a bit relevant, considering that most sexual harrassers harrass multiple people.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 1 year ago

There are many horrible examples from 20th century Ireland - as well as stillbirths or accidental deaths. Several are mentioned in the "Letters to Ann" radio documentary, based on correspondence received by a popular Irish radio programme in the early 80s.

I think there have been large scale longitudinal studies in the US that recorded a drop in infanticide in states with legal abortion - of course this boyo doesn't mention any studies like that, even to criticize them. because this is a plain ol' anti-abortion polemic, not a literature review - all the sources and statistics are there for purely cosmetic purposes.

[-] maol@awful.systems 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Way before Disney. Le Corbusier. The Garden City movement. It goes back to the Renaissance, really.

Napoleon III appointed Haussmann to redesign Paris, and he did a good job (although some aspects of the design were intended to prevent civil unrest). But Paris was already a major city. They didn't decide to build a totally new capital 60 miles from Paris. I guess St. Petersburg is a closer analogy?

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maol

joined 1 year ago