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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)WA
will_a113 @lemmy.ml
Posts 29
Comments 194
Just completed ATLA. What is next in the series?
  • There are a number of graphic novels that continue the story, so you can kinda watch the gaang grow up. The first series, I believe, is called The Search, and it's about finding Zuko's mom. There are also a ton of spinoff novels about the other avatars if you want more lore.

  • Megastudy tests crowdsourced ideas for reducing political polarization
  • From TFA:

    Showing sympathetic figures with differing beliefs, discussed over a drink. Highlighting a shared identity. Correcting misperceptions about opposing partisans' views on democracy. Those are a few of the most effective strategies for reducing political polarization in the U.S., identified by a "megastudy" that surveyed more than 32,000 Democrats and Republicans to test 25 ideas crowdsourced from social scientists and other experts around the world.

  • Anatomy of a Hurricane
  • I was under the impression that the number of hurricanes that made landfall had been increasing in recent decades, but the bottom chart suggests it’s about constant. Maybe it’s just the total number of storms then?

  • People often point to the terrible things in the world as evidence we're living in "the worst timeline". What examples are there of things that suggest our timeline is actually better than it seems?
  • I try to be a "silver lining" type of guy whenever possible, and a recent example that I've been using is mRNA vaccines. They were advancing achingly slowly before CoVID-19 basically turned the whole world into an mRNA lab. Now, thanks to that, there are vaccine trials underway for seasonal influenza, Epstein–Barr virus, HIV, RSV and several types of cancer. There's even talk of a bona fide cure for the common cold.

  • Capsela Toys!
  • I gave my kid my big crate of capsela a few years ago. Aside from having to sand a few contacts it all worked great after 25 years of non-use and also led us into some cool 3d printing projects. I wish they made more toys like this today.

  • Ford's CEO and CFO took a drive in a Chinese EV. What they said next reveals a lot about the state of the US auto industry.
  • Avoid the clickbaity headline:

    Farley and Lawler were left both shocked and impressed by how smooth and quiet their drive was, The Journal reported.

    "Jim, this is nothing like before," Lawler told Farley, per The Journal.

    "These guys are ahead of us," Lawler added.

    Farley's fears were piqued again in May when he made another trip to China, The Journal reported.

    "John, this is an existential threat," Farley told Ford board member and former Goldman Sachs executive John Thornton after his trip.

  • Leak at First CO2 Injection Site in US Exposes Dangerous Folly of Carbon Capture
  • The argument was that before we drilled holes into them, those stone formations had held similarly sized pockets of natural gas for eons, so just refilling them with CO2 would be fine. It sounds not completely stupid on first thought.

    On second thought it sounds completely stupid tho.

  • People who grew up in Manhattan (or other heavily urbanised area), how did your childhood look like?
  • I spent my childhood in Brooklyn (just a bridge away from Manhattan) just before the internet was a thing, and it seems pretty normal relative to what friends from other places describe. In fact, better in some ways. It was always easy to get a group of kids together to do whatever. We had pickup baseball (usually stickball), basketball, hide-and-seek and other games. There were 2 nice parks and several pocket parks in easy walking distance. Most of us had and rode bikes everywhere. A lot of my friends went to different schools (because of the density you might walk 3 blocks to the elementary school north of you, or 4 to the one south), so there were always new pools of people to interact with.

    Though I moved away my sister still lives there and has kids of her own, and it seems pretty much the same now as it was then. Since the density of the place hasn’t changed too much it actually seems more the same than where I live now, which has significantly changed in terms of population and traffic (and is heavily car-dependent) in just the last 15 years.

  • AI Startup Suno Says Music Industry Suit Aims to Stifle Competition

    I've had a lot of fun making stupid songs using Suno, but one of their biggest limitations -- not being able to use a specific artist or group as an example -- seems intentionally added to escape this kind of lawsuit.

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    Cyberpunk @lemmy.ml will_a113 @lemmy.ml

    Though I guess "Saudi Arabia" and "dystopia" is a little redundant

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    How fast can a human possibly run 100 meters? (answer: about 7 seconds)

    bigthink.com How fast can a human possibly run 100 meters?

    The all-time record is Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds, set in 2009. What is the fastest time, ultimately, for an ideal human body?

    How fast can a human possibly run 100 meters?
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    The USDA’s gardening zones shifted. This map shows you what’s changed.

    apps.npr.org The USDA’s gardening zones shifted. This map shows you what’s changed in vivid detail

    There's a good chance your zone shifted when the USDA updated its plant hardiness map in 2023. Zoom in on what that means for your garden.

    The USDA’s gardening zones shifted. This map shows you what’s changed in vivid detail
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    Swiss startup develops AI-driven humanoid hand

    thenextweb.com Swiss startup to advance collaborative robots with GenAI humanoid hand

    Zurich-based mimic has raised $2.5mn to further develop its AI-powered humanoid hand that can perform repetitive and demanding manual tasks.

    Swiss startup to advance collaborative robots with GenAI humanoid hand
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    Orthopedic Surgeon Uses Apple Vision Pro for Rotator Cuff Surgery

    hothardware.com Orthopedic Doctor Uses Apple Vision Pro For Game-Changing Surgery Assist

    The ability to see and highlight critical details more easily or have surgery-aiding software could improve medical outcomes for all.

    Orthopedic Doctor Uses Apple Vision Pro For Game-Changing Surgery Assist

    In this niche case the Vision Pro seems like it has some compelling benefits.

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    NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth!

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    The Open Home Foundation: Home Assistant's new foundation - and goal to become a consumer brand

    arstechnica.com Home Assistant has a new foundation and a goal to become a consumer brand

    Can a non-profit foundation get Home Assistant to the point of Home Depot boxes?

    Home Assistant has a new foundation and a goal to become a consumer brand
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    Peter Higgs, who predicted the existence of the Higgs Boson, has died at 94

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    Fourteen LLMs fight it out in Street Fighter III — Faster models make the best street fighters.

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    Magnitude 4.8 Earthquake Strikes New York Metro Area and East Coast

    www.nbcnews.com Earthquake hits U.S. East Coast, shaking buildings from Philadelphia to Boston

    The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the earthquake at a 4.8-magnitude.

    Earthquake hits U.S. East Coast, shaking buildings from Philadelphia to Boston

    Raw data from the USGS: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000ma74/executive

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    www.tomshardware.com This Raspberry Pi volumetric display is a new spin on LED 3D animations

    The Raspberry Pi powers the show, but the real star is the exquisite build and test process to achieve 600 RPM

    This Raspberry Pi volumetric display is a new spin on LED 3D animations

    Some serious engineering makes for a pretty compelling voxel display. Plus the whole build saga is on Mastodon! Go Fediverse!

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    arstechnica.com FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law

    Robocalls with AI voices to be regulated under Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

    FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law

    Robocalls with AI voices to be regulated under Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the agency says. I'm pretty sure this puts us on the timeline where we eventually get incredible, futuristic tech, but computers and robots still sound mechanical and fake.

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    Starlink's Laser System is Beaming 42 Petabytes of Data Per Day

    SpaceX's laser system for Starlink is delivering over 42 petabytes of data for customers per day, an engineer revealed today. That translates into 42 million gigabytes. Each of the 9,000 lasers in the network is capable of transmitting at 100Gbps, and satellites can form ad-hoc mesh networks to complete long-haul transmissions when there are no ground towers nearby (like when they're going across oceans).

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    www.theregister.com Cory Doctorow wants to wipe away enshittification of tech

    It's not just you – things really are getting worse

    Cory Doctorow wants to wipe away enshittification of tech

    Doctrow argues that nascent tech unionization (which we're closer to having now than ever before) combined with bipartisan fear (and consequent regulation) either directly or via agencies like the FTC and FCC can help to curb Big Tech's power, and the enshittification that it has wrought.

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    Lemmy 0.19 should be called Turbo Edition

    Noticed I was logged out of lemmy.ml this morning. When I logged in, everything looked the same, but... "All" loaded instantly. Switching to "Subscribed" was just as fast. Post thumbnails came up as quickly as I could scroll.

    I don't know if it's the new software or if y'all cleared out some cruft when restarting the services, but from this end-user's perspective, Lemmy 0.19.0-rc.8 flies. Nicely done!

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    The Battle Over Books3 Could Change AI Forever

    Increasingly, the authors of works being used to train large language models are complaining (and rightfully so) that they never gave permission for such a use-case. If I were an LLM company, I'd be seriously looking for a Plan B right now, whether that's engaging publishing companies to come up with new licensing options, paying 1,000,000 grad students to write 1,000,000 lines of prose, or something else entirely.

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    health @lemmy.ml will_a113 @lemmy.ml
    newatlas.com Antioxidants such as vitamin C found to spur cancer growth & metastasis

    A new study has found that antioxidants like vitamins C and E activate a mechanism that stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in cancer tumors, helping them to grow and spread. The researchers say their findings highlight the potential risk of taking antioxidant supplements when they’re not…

    Antioxidants such as vitamin C found to spur cancer growth & metastasis

    “We’ve found that antioxidants activate a mechanism that causes cancer tumors to form new blood vessels, which is surprising since it was previously thought that antioxidants have a protective effect,” said Martin Bergö, a new study’s author. “The new blood vessels nourish the tumors and can help them grow and spread.” It's worth noting that there's no harm in consuming normal antioxidant-rich foods in normal quantities, though.

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    In an important breakthrough (to cats), scientists figure out why cats love tuna so much

    Ever wonder why cats love tuna? Well apparently a bunch of scientists did too, and they found the answer: the umami flavor (savoriness in English, I guess), is a cat's most favorite (as opposed to mine, which is definitely sweet).

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    United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml will_a113 @lemmy.ml

    Study Finds Social Media Conversations Can Reduce Political Polarization, Particularly Among Republicans

    Political polarization toned down through anonymous online chats

    Researchers conducted a study to see if social media could help bridge the political divide by facilitating anonymous conversations between individuals with opposing political views. The study used an app called DiscussIt, which allowed users to have anonymous one-on-one discussions about controversial topics. The researchers found that these conversations reduced polarization, particularly among Republican participants. However, there are practical challenges to implementing this approach on a larger scale, as most people do not engage in one-on-one conversations with strangers on social media. Nonetheless, the findings suggest that displaying respect for political opponents and engaging in civil conversations can make a difference in reducing polarization.

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