MetaFilter

> When you're talking about people of the book, and especially the Fremen, who are explicitly descendants of Arab peoples

I don't know if they were arabs, exactly, but Dune takes places something like 10,000 years in the future, and the Fremen peoples came from the "Zensunni", a kind of syncretism between Sunni Islam and Buddhism
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:57 AM on February 28, 2024

> I don't know if they were arabs, exactly,

> It constantly astounds me when people deny the clear and very much conscious Arab

I just meant in the explicit mythology of the books, not the real world inspiration of the author. Although if he was inspired by the Berbers, Berbers are not Arabs.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 11:27 AM on February 28, 2024

Self-immolation is undoubtedly, at least for a Westerner, an act of despair. But despair can have many causes. We always say that despair is mental illness, but it's possible to be full of despair because the world is wrong, because of real horrors and terrible acts. I am filled with despair by the ongoing genocide, it definitely weighs on me, everyday. If I read about it, it weighs on my mind. If I decide to not stay up to date because it's too horrible and there's nothing I… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2024

“you say it’s bad to kill children but have you considered that our enemies were once children”, incredible. this is the logic of holocaust, cold indifference and thirst for blood. it’s almost impossible for me to believe someone said that out loud, it’s so heinous
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:16 AM on February 13, 2024

it doesn't matter if khaled mashal says he will accept the existence of israel, and i don't care. there's no set of words or actions that could possibly justify israel's current actions either morally or legally. you're trying to justify genocide by sealioning, and should be ashamed.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:12 AM on February 13, 2024

> Looks like someone self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC in protest (the second person in the US since Oct 7, to my knowledge)

What's going around twitter/bluesky is that it was an active duty member of the US Air Force, saying they refused to be complicit in the genocide of palestinians, which is not yet confirmed (there are some photos of a guy in fatigues but everything is fake these days so impossible to know yet) but it is completely unexpected if true
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 1:17 PM on February 25, 2024

> Is there a reason the vending machines need to know how old you are?

in all sincerity, if the vending machine is displaying ads, it's useful to be able to tell advertisers the demographic that will see the ads and how many people will see them. that's why you'd do it. but of course it sucks to have yet more ads being shown to me in more places, the vending machine itself already serving as an ad for whatever it sells.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 2:17 PM on February 24, 2024

> but the fact that they're there at all, and that they arise just from having watched millions of videos and still pictures, is so interesting that the dangers fade a little into the background.

the dangers are that the creative capacity of real people will atrophy and be supplanted by the generative power of computers which simply regurgitate past creative production in new arrangements, repetitive chimeras, lacking completely in originality or expression. and that… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:11 AM on February 16, 2024

AI video is a scam

these claims that it’s “not generating video” seem kind of confused about what’s going on. it’s not using its powers of imagination to interpret a prompt and produce an original artwork based on this interpretation, that’s true. but it’s definitely using its massive corpus of video to create frankenstein’s monster versions by combining bits of other videos. i’m not really sure how the video generation works but if it’s anything… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:39 AM on February 17, 2024

the brazenness of this must be some kind of message, since navalny surely posed no threat to putin today if he ever did in the past, but it’s not really clear what the message. nobody serious has any doubt that putin regularly murders people who are in his way, so there’s nothing to prove there. maybe there’s no message to it. maybe he was just preoccupied and hadn’t got around to ordering it done
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:32 PM on February 16, 2024

i don’t think it’s emphasized enough how completely the “economic war” against russia has failed. their gdp is growing, they face no real obstacles to lng and oil exports and they seem to have had no problem sourcing the electronics and other materials needed to keep their war machines going. at the beginning of the war western boosters would not stop predicting the inevitable collapse of the russian military because they would run out of supplies due to sanctions and it’s clear that won’t… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2024

> Meduza: Ukraine says large Russian landing ship destroyed in strike

it seems like ships are basically defenseless against drone attacks. slow moving, giant targets, no way to defend against cheap bombs that can fly low and fast (especially if they can send a few at once). they’re sitting ducks, which does not bode well for the american reliance on carrier groups. a few thousand bucks in consumer electronics and explosives and you can destroy billions of dollars in military hardware.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 8:18 AM on February 14, 2024

it’s very difficult for me to understand the psychology of anyone voting in the democratic primary this year. i guess the lines will be short so it won’t take long but there are better things to do on a saturday like watch a pot boil or get a used toothbrush out to clean your grout. the thing about it is that only party weirdos are voting in an incumbent primary with no real challenger so naturally biden is racking up absurd numbers.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:13 AM on February 4, 2024

we should be very proud of him

Nobody is asking anybody to feel anything? Sometimes news is just the news.

eh it’s definitely being spun as part of a narrative to counter biden’s historically low approval ratings and the worrying prospects he has for beating trump again. people are asking us to feel things
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:34 AM on February 4, 2024

i will say it’s nice to see the lincoln project’s little freak dan phillips getting shellacked here. a primary challenge from the right, of all things, is not something the democratic party or the country needs and hope people will start to see the lincoln project for the transparent political consultant grift it is. it’s gratifying to see the “maybe elon musk should have a cabinet position” guy has basically no constituency in the party
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:28 AM on February 4, 2024

smashing the gravestone is an interesting finisher. does it imply he is battling death itself, waging a war on mortality? the grim reaper comes for everyone, even you jamie casino (can’t be his real name!)
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 5:35 AM on February 2, 2024

i’m curious what happens if he just, as i expect him to, doesn’t pay. will he be arrested? he just has to call their bluff until nov 4th and then either he’s completely fucked anyway, or he’s president and will get away with all of it. it’s so fun how we are rushing headlong into a real constitutional crisis with all these cases swirling around trump. i love to think about how we’re only 9 months away from the complete breakdown of the political order.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:05 AM on January 27, 2024

Biden staff on cocaine, Trump staff on provigil, that's not the way I would have guessed things would fall out.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 8:26 AM on January 24, 2024

i mean has there ever been a more absurd primary? in every debate they all competed in a game to see who could praise trump the most, while he big dicked all of them by not even showing up. outside of the political elites and pundit class, the republican party is a cult of personality, and that personality is back on the ballot. i don’t understand why haley, desantis , etc bothered except as a way to get some media time and grift some campaign cash from conservative billionaires who want all the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 4:20 PM on January 21, 2024

Die or not die, win or lose, be removed from the ballot for insurrection or stay on the ballot all the way to Nov 4, it doesn't matter, Trump is still a mythical figure and dozens will run in his name. He remade the Republican party and it's his party now, and will be until the next major transformation of US politics. The most important thing is ensuring that movement does not get power again, and I think the establishment doesn't really grasp the gravity of the moment, not completely, given… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:05 AM on January 16, 2024

> for all of Trump's whackadoodle nuclear talk, he has made the contrast between the Washington establishment's interest in foreign intervention a major contrast with his isolationism

except it's all bullshit. He made a show of isolationist rhetoric and then just let the "big beautiful generals" do whatever they wanted. All you'd have to do is flatter him enough and he'd agree to invade anywhere, I dunno, France tomorrow.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:25 AM on January 16, 2024

i’m expecting low turnout in every contest in the republican nomination race because they are treating trump as the incumbent who is basically already the nominee. if there was another candidate that anyone was actually excited about maybe turnout would be better but this show is already over. i expect the rest of the candidates to drop out by super tuesday if not before. poor ron desantis, you wore those cowboy boot lifts for nothing
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:12 AM on January 17, 2024

> Yeah, didn't Pete Buttigieg win Iowa, too?

Bernie won the vote but Pete got one more state delegate equivalent because of how dumb the caucus system is. However, that doesn’t tell us much because Trump won Iowa by a margin that we almost never see in the caucuses. He dominated, so it’s not really a Santorum kind of win where someone destined to get crushed on super tuesday wins the Iowa caucuses
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 11:21 AM on January 17, 2024

100k seems to be in approximately the same ballpark as 2012 and 2008... and certainly no farther from them than it is the real historic turnout low point in 2000

the amount of money and canvassing and media attention spoiled all so 100k or so politics weirdos can fail on average to pick the person who will be nominated by the party never ceases to amaze me. no shade to iowans or caucus goers but there is no good reason for anyone to care this much… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 5:13 PM on January 17, 2024

it’s really hard for me to tell if the author is being sincere or if this is an extremely dry parody of evolutionary or simplistic biological explanations of human behavior
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:48 PM on January 14, 2024

I’ve even read a fortune from a Kraft Singles slice

If processed cheese food is on the table, I want a Velveeta reading.

I only listen to the divinations of Provel rope based tyromancy
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 12:34 PM on January 7, 2024

we get into this debate a lot on mefi and i’d like to say once again that you should always sue big corporations for petty shit like this because they don’t deserve benefit of the doubt or any kind of leniency. fuck em. also i would also have been disappointed by those sad pumpkins when the package showed a fun jack o lantern
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:46 AM on December 31, 2023

the crash in the video is at about 1:09:00 if you’re wondering and man that kid is pleased
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 3:54 PM on December 23, 2023

> This tweet said that the #1 song in Israel was calling for genocide and to kill known celebrities who voiced support for Palestine, so I looked it up. Here's the news article about it, calling it war anthem. Here's the video with translation. Content warning for language used.

It's so unfathomable that we're watching a genocide unfold live in front of us and nothing i can do can stop it and what's worse is countless people celebrate it openly at the same time that… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:51 PM on December 2, 2023

it’s pretty clear at this point that the idf considers everyone in gaza, from 5 year old girls and foreign doctors to UN staff, hamas terrorists
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 2:51 PM on December 8, 2023

> Well, Israel clearly isn't using strategic bombing, as per ACOUP this is operational or tactical bombing in support of a ground operation.

tactical bombing is limited, precise strikes to attack targets that you are basically looking right at (at a distance). Israel is currently conducting what might go down in history as the most extensive urban bombing campaign ever. They’re bombing everything that could be plausibly called a target. jesus christ they’re doing… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:13 AM on December 9, 2023

I think again we have a situation where some people (mostly on the more pro-Israeli side of things) think the issue at hand is specific legalistic terminology but the people they're arguing with (mostly on the more pro-Palestinian side of things) think the issue at hand is morality.

this is an extremely generous interpretation. what i see is people decrying heinous crimes against humanity and others responding by using technical language to try and… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 12:27 PM on December 10, 2023

We had to destroy Gaza in order to save it
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 8:46 AM on December 11, 2023

> What would you have had them do otherwise?

Considering that this effort will not only not destroy Hamas, almost certainly it will strengthen it by motivating more young traumatized men to take up arms, and will harden the hearts of Palestinians everywhere for several generations against a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Israel, literally anything else. But I see we've reached the "what other choice did we have" stage in genocide apologia.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 2:17 PM on December 11, 2023

There is a bit more information the NYT reporting left out

so it turns out the “information left out” is that the idf is killing everyone they see, armed or not? i don’t think that’s the mitigating circumstance you think it is
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:17 AM on December 17, 2023

I feel confident that if the Biden administration told Israel to cut it the fuck out right now or we're establishing a no fly zone over Gaza (which would mean shooting down Israeli jets!), they would scale back right away. But there's no political will for that right now inside the Biden camp. Otherwise, nobody can say shit to Israel that would make them listen.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:47 AM on December 18, 2023

I will say when you see what the Houthis are doing you start to understand why the US is so invested in maintaining ties to friendly powers in the region like the Saudis and the Israelis. Shipping has not had to circumnavigate Africa to reach the West for 154 years. In many ways 20th century was built by the Suez and Panama canals and with the offshoring of manufacture to Asia in the past 40 years the entire economy of the West relies on 120 miles of canal carved out of the Sinai peninsula. If… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:33 AM on December 22, 2023

> I don't know that Netflix consciously tries to break the established North American industry system, but for my viewing history, they certainly have.

I think they're just more interested in expanding subscribership internationally since they basically saturated the north american market a few years ago (everybody who was ever going to get a netflix account got one in the pandemic). But it does mean we get to see a lot of great international television and movies… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:21 AM on December 22, 2023

a huge factor here was reaction against the wave of progressive prosecutors. nowhere got featured more in this hysteria than san francisco and it definitely contributed to the ouster of chesa boudin. in any case this seems like deliberate lying to manipulate public opinion. shouldn’t that carry consequences? someone should be held accountable
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:39 AM on December 16, 2023

shoplifting at a corporate chain? that’s none of my business
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 3:55 PM on December 16, 2023

The smart money goes to Illinois for legal weed. The pigs can't stake out I94.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:19 AM on December 12, 2023

generally speaking supporting firefox is pretty low effort, and the majority of the time when something doesn’t work in firefox but works in chrome it’s because firefox is adhering closely to the documented standards and your code is just wrong, while chrome is happily silently fixing the broken code so that it works. Safari is the real pain in ass to support, especially iOS safari.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 7:16 AM on December 9, 2023

So when I piss, shit and jack off in the mall they call it "public indecency" and "you should be on a watch list" and throw me in jail. But when Diogenes does it it's a philosophical statement about social mores. Ok! go off king
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 8:00 AM on December 7, 2023

> jaimie branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

This is my absolute top for 2023, except it also fills me with sadness
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 11:14 AM on December 5, 2023

Unfortunately the web interface is not loading for me right now but I really want to ask it the important question from Gargantua as to what is the best, most lordly, the most excellent, the most convenient way to wipe my bum.
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:09 PM on November 26, 2023

> a solitary Bonk to release him from his Miseries

couldn’t we all use one of these
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 1:20 PM on November 27, 2023

i can think of a certain young israelite who stood up against a great and mighty enemy armed only with a sling and stones and was victorious so you never know how dangerous a stone throwing 7 year old might be. better safe than sorry
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 12:54 PM on November 26, 2023

so to be clear that’s turkules like hercules not polycules?
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 6:05 AM on November 26, 2023

> "Feel the AGI! Feel the AGI!”

These people are out of their minds
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 11:24 AM on November 20, 2023

if these are the people bringing us into the future... only a god can save us now
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:15 AM on November 22, 2023