Things that are things.

Discussion, in general

Re: Things that are things.

Postby Krashlia » Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:11 am

CarrieVS wrote:Behold the pterosaur Nyctosaurus.

Spoiler: show
Image


A few points to note:

- We have more than one fossil skull with a crest like that, so it's not some bizarrely deformed individual. They really did look like that.
- That crest is half a metre long, the length of the body being just over a foot.
- It's been suggested that the prongs supported a membrane, either for display or for aerodynamic purposes, which to my mind at least would make it look a little less odd. A little. But the fossil evidence is very much against that.
- Yes, that damned thing flew. It may well have done little else, somewhat like swifts today. Pterosaurs couldn't walk on their hind legs, and while many were surprisingly agile quadrupeds, this pterosaur - uniquely - had lost all the digits on its forelimbs except for the one that supports the wing, so we can pretty well infer that it wasn't so comfortable on the ground.


I'll put it under "Should be extincted" in my Species notebook.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby IamNotCreepy » Tue Mar 27, 2018 5:33 pm

cmsellers wrote:So The Atlantic used to have one of the best comment sections on the internet. This is despite the fact that they use Disqus, which is an absolutely terrible commenting platform. The design of Disqus means that if two people get into a flame war under the top comment, it takes forever to find productive comments.

Years ago, Ta Nehisi Coates had initially encouraged good comments in his articles, before getting sick of trolls and shutting off comments in his articles. The head editor did the same. Coates was an interesting enough writer that I usually read his articles, but I tended to skip the head editor's pieces when I saw the byline, since he often said stupid things and I'd realize there was no one to call him out in the comments.

Then a couple months ago, the whole site did away with comments, in favor of a curated "letters" section. I realized that since that time, I basically haven't read The Atlantic. It seems that big part of the appeal to me was that if The Atlantic had an article saying something stupid, I could scroll down to the comments and be reassured by people pointing that out. Now that's gone.

I also realized that I stopped reading The Daily Beast years ago when it did away with what was, again, an above-average comment section. And of course somewong ruined Cracked's comments section. The only website I know of remaining with a decent comment section is FiveThirtyEight, and they use Facebook as a platform (better than Disqus but still not good) and don't delete obvious spam, which suggests that team there doesn't even look at their comments section.

What is it with website who have decent comments sections deciding that comments sections are worthless and then setting out to make it true?


I actually find that Slate has a really good comments section. The articles can be hit or miss, but the commenters will usually call the author out on their stupid stuff.

The only problem is the platform itself sucks.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:58 pm

whatis.png
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:03 am

I just used a bunch of online gift card money to buy (the cheapest copy I could find of) a textbook I've been meaning to get for a while. In a few days, a book on CNC machining from 2011 in acceptable condition will be mine.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby LaoWai » Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:05 am

I guess this counts as a thing, I had to grab a bus this morning, because the cabs were all busy doing whatever. Bus pulled up to this one stop,and a bunch of kids got on; one of them gave me a nod and a "hello," and I was four stops from my home, so I gave her a "hello" back.

We go for a stop or so, and I ask "Hey, little sister, why aren't you hanging out with the other little friends?" (Um, that maybe sounds creepier in English than it does in Chinese, sorry,)

She answered,in Chinese, "I'm a little fat-person, and they don't like me." (Again, it makes more sense in Chinese, and just trust me, so does the following.)

I said, "I used to go to a school where people didn't like me because I was different. Then I went to a place where people liked me because I was different. Now, I'm just in a place, and sometimes I'm different, and sometimes I'm not that different, and people sometimes don't like me, and people sometimes like me. But most important is just, I am I.

"Other people maybe look down on me, but that's just their thoughts.If other people look down on you, maybe that's just their thoughts. You are not always what you are right now, and you can give up on that. You can be whatever you think, you know, you are. And maybe that's nothing special, but it'll be you. You just be you , and let those others worry."
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby Absentia » Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:45 am

A touching story undermined by Billy Idol running through my head after "Hey, little sister".
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby cmsellers » Fri Mar 30, 2018 4:39 am

Apparently, the Zodiac Killer did a bunch of Simpsons impressions for BuzzFeed.


I have to say: his Flanders impression is almost not bad.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby Krashlia » Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:01 am

The Exodus story is like Camp of the Saints, except in inverse and all of the Third World people just up and left and made sure the White and European people knew that they were d**ks.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby cmsellers » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:16 am

When I went to Home Depot they had a handwritten sign for 1 gallon sprayers and I read it as "1 gallon = 5 prayers."

Have I been living in Texas too long?
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby NathanLoiselle » Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:52 pm

cmsellers wrote:When I went to Home Depot they had a handwritten sign for 1 gallon sprayers and I read it as "1 gallon = 5 prayers."

Have I been living in Texas too long?


Only if you fill your sprayer with acid.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Apr 04, 2018 5:37 am

The swelling in Sparkle's mouth went down and she ate a whole can of tuna. She may not have oral cancer after all!
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby cmsellers » Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:52 am

It's a relatively cool night out so I have all my windows open (well, all the ones I can reach) instead of AC. It's also a very windy night. I've realized that the wind flowing over my bare feet feels weird.
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby JamishT » Thu Apr 05, 2018 3:47 am

So I found out tonight that I may have been wearing the wrong sized shoes. According to measurements I took and charts that Google showed me, my shoes are like a size and a half too big. Also it seems that I have wider than normal feet, so fantasize about that, foot fetishists!

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Re: Things that are things.

Postby jbobsully11 » Thu Apr 05, 2018 3:51 am

Either cats really are magic, or something has gone horribly wrong.

My mom’s cat has been missing all day. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, except he’s an indoor cat, and we’ve looked everywhere in the house.

The reason why he’s an indoor cat is because he was declawed (before we got him).
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Things that are things.

Postby cmsellers » Sat Apr 07, 2018 6:29 am

jbobsully11 wrote:The reason why he’s an indoor cat is because he was declawed (before we got him).

You don't need to justify having indoor cats to me. Outdoor cats massacre birds and I like birds.
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